#class trial. everyone thinks he stole the money so he might as well have. and he goes to apologize. except Miles declares that it’s not

[borom1r]

I have thoughts abt Beanix but they are NOT coherent ooooargh!!!! HIM!!!!!!!

[nobodyfamousposts]

Miracle Queen Aftermath

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

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

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

Enjoy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And there were a lot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But no. Nobody was surprised.

Except, perhaps, Marinette herself.

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

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

And it was all because of her mistakes.

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

Now…it was background static to her.

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

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

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

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

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

Not until the day came when Bustier made an announcement.

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

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

Maybe that was why Bustier had tried to step in?

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

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

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

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

Silence. Dead silence.

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

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

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

Then—

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

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

“Is she serious?”

“Does she really expect us to?”

“Of all the worst ideas...”

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

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

Marinette couldn’t quite bring herself to.

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

And damaged her gift to their teacher.

And attempted to frame her a few times.

And stolen her hat design.

And her diary.

And a Miraculous.

And all of the other Miraculous.

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

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

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

So why...

Why couldn’t she seem to bring herself to?

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

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

“Hear hear!”

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

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

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

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

“None of us did.” Nino agreed.

“Nobody did except her.” Alix bit out.

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

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

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

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

It was too much. It was suffocating.

“I think I need some air. Excuse me.”

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

Not until…

“Marinette, are you all right?”

She spun around in surprise.

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

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

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

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

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

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

He sighed in sympathy. “Poor Chloe.”

She froze.

“Chloe?”

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

Marinette just stared.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“M-me?”

He wanted her to convince her classmates to help Chloe?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I—”

“Oh no! No, you do NOT.”

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

That whirlwind’s name was Alya.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“She took over Paris!”

“She turned us into her servants!“

“Not to mention the other things…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adrien drew back, looking genuinely hurt.

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

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

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

“But—”

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

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

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

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

“I’ve called her out!”

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

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

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

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

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

“I didn’t mean—”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She shook her head.

“Chloe…doesn’t.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Thanks!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still he tried.

“Rose?”

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

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

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

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

“Rose, come on…”

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

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

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

“But—”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That brought out a backlash of outrage.

“She outted my crush!”

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

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

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

“She locked Juleka in the restroom!”

Wait...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And Chloe had pretty much been her world for years.

What must she be feeling now?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sabrina jumped. “Of course, I do!”

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

“But they let her go…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Because Adrien had still not given up, it seemed.

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

None of them except…

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

She bit her lip. “I…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What?” Adrien jerked in surprise.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Not that Chloe could tell.“ Alix sniped.

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

“Marinette….come on…please.”

She hesitated.

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

Except...

There was a long pause. No one spoke.

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

…and hadn’t Marinette already done that enough?

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

Adrien balked at that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adrien frowned. “I…I see that—”

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

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

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

She tilted her head, considering.

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

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

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

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

“Why haven’t you?” Alya demanded.

Adrien drew back in surprise at that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adrien hesitated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She shook her head.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nino rested a hand on Adrien’s shoulder.

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

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

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

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

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

Marinette gasped.

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

“No…” Adrien whispered in shock.

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

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

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

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

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

Marinette smiled. “No, I understand.”

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

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

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

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

She…hadn’t lost everything.

Not yet.

And that was the scary thing…

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

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

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

She shrugged helplessly.

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

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

Adrien himself felt horrible for even suggesting it.

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

Silence followed. It practically echoed throughout the entire hallway.

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

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

He suddenly found it harder to breathe.

Nino could leave.

Adrien could lose his best friend because of this.

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

…what about himself?

He paled.

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

…would he ban Adrien from leaving the house altogether?

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

And in that light…

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

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

“I just wanted to help.”

He deflated, losing all remaining fight.

“I’m sorry.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adrien smiled back. “Thanks.”

This…this felt much better.

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

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

[hectabdr]

Dragon Raja IV - Chapters 3 & 4 (Abridged)

Hi everyone, continuing with today's chapters, these are centered around Nono and Caesar and their lives after he returned from Japan.

Previous chapters

Chapter 3

Mediterranean Sea, Republic of Malta.

The Island of Frefra is mostly an ecological reserve, there is a white building on top of a natural harbor with luxury yachts and sailing boats. Tourists and locals have always been interested in knowing more about its residents, but the government is very secretive about it. It is well protected against binoculars and often, music can be heard coming from the inside. Girls in white dresses walk around it and they're known as the "Iris girls".

At 5:45 am, a rotating alarm clock started playing a terrible heavy metal song, making its way through fashion magazines and snacks, it ran around the bedroom of Chen Motong, who finally trapped it and took its batteries out.

She slept for another 20 minutes and woke up in a hurry. She had classes to attend. Cooking lessons, Japanese tea ceremonies, British literature and music appreciation, amongst other things. This was the Golden Iris Shuyuan Academy. It was meant to educate Nono on how to live among nobility.

She arrived late at the breakfast table only to realize the other girls were betting on her punctuality. After she accepted Caesar's proposal, he took her to Rome to meet his relatives, some of which were more than 300 years old, they left their cryogenic beds and unexpectedly blessed their marriage (after evaluating her from head to toes). Nono's own family was rich and powerful, known as the Black Prince Group. After both families signed the marriage contract, they agreed to make Nono drop out of Cassell to take a years-long bridal training in the Shuyuan Academy.

During her dancing lessons, a yawning Nono was the only one who couldn't keep up with the rhythm, prompting her teacher to whip her foot.

At her cooking class, she kept eating bits off her dish, leaving almost nothing for the teacher to evaluate.

She managed to succeed on her tea ceremony while her boredom made her toes fight each other behind her back. She was distracted during literature and used her profiling skill to cheat on her analysis of classical music.

She unwillingly started regretting the moment she accepted the marriage proposal, but not because of Caesar, it was all about the life that awaited her. The lessons were relentless and the academy was isolated from the outside world. She didn't sleep enough because she used her Cassell training to sneak out at 10:00 pm to swim by the beach, that was the only time in her day when she felt truly free.

She toyed frequently with her obnoxious alarm clock, it was a gift from her old classmate, Luminous. On her last birthday, he casually carried a backpack with him all day, it was pretty obvious that he was preparing to give her a gift, which he nervously did, and he was the only person who dared to do so, as everyone else felt intimidated by Caesar.

She knew about Luminous's feelings for her. All of the male classmates who liked her could easily fill the whole cafeteria. Luminous was just one of them. She considered herself a passer-by in his life, thinking some girls of his age (like Zero) would be a better match for him. One day he'd mention it as a thing of the past and they would both laugh about it.

She hoped to finish the bridal course in months, but it had already been a year. She brought mostly books but she quickly ran out of things to read.

Suddenly, she realized someone was hiding in her bedroom, right after the cleaning lady left. The intruder took one of her books and a bag from her secret stash of potato chips. She turned off the lights and grabbed a knife, more excited than scared, she searched for the thief.

After finding nothing, she remembered her bathtub, and there he was, asleep with the missing book on his face and a bag of chips in his belly. She punched him in the stomach. A patrolling Nun showed up, concerned, Nono hid the intruder in the tub and pretended to take a bath. If someone found Luminous in her room, they would accuse Nono of having an affair.

The nun searched the whole place with a revolver but couldn't find anyone, before leaving, she had a conversation with Nono about her situation in the academy, specifically her wish to leave. In the lady's words, "Her soul seemed to lag behind her body". Luminous finally understood that she was there to become the perfect bride. When the nun left, Nono scolded him for his presence, she realized he looked different, he was clearly taking care of himself, better dressed, he definitely had a better haircut. He also thought she looked somehow different, more elegant, but exhausted.

His stomach roared, breaking a long awkward silence and she took him out to steal some food for him. They took wine from the cellar, along with some ham and cheese.

-Sister, do you know Johann Chu? -Maybe, was he your boyfriend or did he just owe you money?

Luminous explained his situation to her: he decided to go with the school's psychologist, professor Toyama, who diagnosed him as schizophrenic. Toyama attempted to erase Johann off his memory, but Luminous responded by making a scene and drawing out his desert eagles. He tried to track Johann in everyone else's memories but his missing classmate didn't have many friends.

Anjou couldn't remember him either. Back during Luminous's second year, there was no trial against a Blood Rage user, Frost Gattuso only accused the principal for his terrible administration. The rollercoaster incident happened way after they finished their ride with Shavee. Anjou gave Luminous the location of Chen Motong, telling him to use her profiling ability to find some clues.

However, Nono also believed Luminous had schizophrenia and convinced him to stop his search and look for treatment instead. Luminous lamented his condition and how he couldn't trust the world he lived in anymore, however, despite how enticing it was to forget Johann and go back to the real world, he felt his brother was still out there, waiting to be saved, but everyone forgot about him. Nono couldn't do much for him in his situation.

-Years ago, you were not the president of the Student Union, but a scared boy that I rescued from a theater. Now that you don't trust the world anymore, you came back to me. How many more times do you think I'll be here to save you?

Suddenly, a security guard noticed the candle they lit in the cellar. Nono didn't know how to react, but someone broke a bottle of wine on the guard's head and knocked him down. It was Finger, who informed Luminous that now he was wanted by Cassell, as they thought he was an undercover agent sent by the Dragon Raja.

Apparently, on the same night that Luminous left the college, someone entered the Ice cellar and stole Constantine's skeleton, severely injuring principal Anjou in the process. The only student with such clearance and power was the S-Rank himself.

Agents of the Execution Bureau went looking for Finger in Cuba, so he buried them in a tobacco field, with their heads out, of course.

Nono urged them to understand the seriousness of what it meant to be hunted by the secret party, which essentially made them targets of the whole world. They could leave no traces for Norma to track down. She considered there were three possibilities:

1- Luminous was insane.

2- He was an undercover agent sent by the dragon raja all along.

3- He was the only person in the world who was't hypnotized.

The only being who could be responsible for the third option is the white dragon king. Its skeleton was never recovered. Their only option was to travel with Luminous in secret to track down any trace that Johann might have left in the world before he disappeared.

-I really hope my brother is alive... -True Love! Said Finger and Nono in unison.

Finger then urged them both to leave and "go save the world" but Nono refused to leave. She had a responsibility with her family and with Caesar. As Luminous turned around and started walking, Finger stunned her, urging Luminous to help him carry her outside.

Chapter 4

Caesar Gattuso was sitting down in a church. This was the anniversary of his mother's death, so he wore a suit, drove a Harley Davidson motorcycle on his way there and brought her a bouquet of white flowers.

When he was younger, she bought him a miniature bike, she also loved to see him wearing little suits. Most of Caesar's style was based on her taste, he thought that would please her while she watched him from heaven.

The first time he had been on the Milan cathedral, he was attending her funeral. The ceremony was presided by the pope himself. Knowing of his family's involvement in her death, he poured kerosene on the coffin and lit a fire on the church. The authorities managed to save the historical building and despite of it all, Caesar was still allowed inside every year to mourn Gulweig, (as long as he wasn't carrying any dangerous chemicals).

Parsi Gattuso arrived in a car to give him some urgent news, his wife Chen Motong had gone missing. He brought with himself a letter that she wrote for her fiancé, it expressed Chen's dissatisfaction with her new life, asking him to give her some time.

Caesar immediately realized the poetic letter was fake, since Nono wouldn't bother to express herself in such a way. According to him, Nono would just write "Caesar, I'm leaving" In a napkin and leave it on top of her bed. The letter was probably written by a narcissistic person like Finger.

However, this left him reflecting on Nono's true feelings towards her future, wondering if all he did was capturing a bird (that he initially admired for its freedom) just to lock it in a cage.

Far away in Cassell College, the elders of the Secret Party reunited for an emergency meeting, the first one since 1961. Many famous individuals that once shaped the course of history were in it, still alive after faking their deaths to cover up their slow aging. In the principal's chair, Leonardo Flammel, the vice-principal and a direct descendant of Nicholas Flammel sat down and started the meeting.

He welcomed EVA, Norma's war personality with 140,000 times her processing power, and asked her to project a life-like hologram of Anjou's assassination attempt.

According to the recording, the previous night, the principal intended to access the ice cellar, but he stopped meters before reaching the entrance. He looked behind and said:

-Is that you?

In a fraction of a second, his access card had left his pocket after something cut through it. His entire body started bleeding from multiple cuts to his skin. He had no time to react and tried to use the card as his weapon, since the attacker didn't give him enough time (even using Time Zero) to draw his dragon slaying knife. It was guessed that his opponent could use Time Zero as well, but was more skilled in combat than the principal himself.

The security system identified the situation in time and called the police and medical assistance, otherwise, Anjou would have died. The conversation quickly turned to Luminous's possible involvement in the situation, Flammel had a conversation about it with "Mr. Beowulf", who was also present.

The legendary Beowulf was not an individual but a family of dragon slayers. They had a strong attraction to dragon blood, for them it was almost like drugs to an addict.

They were the most fierce dragon hunters in history, pouring the blood of their prey and drinking it after every successful kill. Their newborns were poisoned with dragon blood and only those who survived the process were considered worthy of living. Their latest descendants were almost dragon-like in appearance, but they were unlikely to turn into death servitors. Whenever that happened, the family killed them immediately.

Considering there's an imminent crisis ahead, the leader of the family showed himself in the table for the first time in a hundred years. That's because he strongly opposed the establishment of Cassell College, since "a true dragon slayer can only be born in the battlefield".

Back in the day, he led the "Action team" of the secret party, which eventually became the Execution Bureau. Initially he was expected to lead it, before he expressed his dissatisfaction with the college. Compared to the Action Team of the old days, the cruel Bureau is almost a charity.

Beowulf immediately started discussing Luminous's background. His parents were apparently in the records of the Execution Bureau, but their achievements are not registered. They never reported themselves and their location is currently unknown.

Caesar Gattuso was responsible for the defeat of Norton, Abdullah for Fenrir and the Gattuso's orbital weapon for the White King. Luminous was present during all of these events, but his actions are not registered either. He theorizes that Luminous is in fact a dragon, taking advantage of the war to slay his fellow kings. Since his use of Yanling was unknown and Time Zero belonged to the King of Sky and wind, the most mysterious of the dragon kings, the elders came to the conclusion that this dragon was none other than Luminous himself.

As soon as Beowulf questioned the absence of Frost Gattuso, Pompeii himself made an entrance by making EVA project his hologram on an empty chair. The man was semi-naked as multiple women applied sunscreen on him, annoying everyone on the room, specially Beowulf. Pompeii focused on the importance of Constantine's skeleton, since everyone else seemed more focused on Anjou's assassination attempt. Those bones contained the power of the king of bronze and fire, who was conformed by twins, so the college kept Constantine's skeleton, while the Gattuso family kept Norton's. In that very moment, Frost was transporting their half of the dragon king to an underground vault in the bank of Rome.

Pompeii linked Frost to the call, who was now 120 meters underground and descending. The vault was heavily protected against Time Zero users.

Just as they were discussing the security measures, the loud sound of an alarm silenced everyone in the room, when the members of the meeting asked about its purpose, they quickly realized that it wasn't coming from Cassell, it came from the elevator in Rome. The intruder was in the vault.

Frost was instructed to forget the original plan and leave with the bones of Norton. His bodyguards quickly mutated into dragon-like creatures to protect him. Corrosive acid and bombs were released as the elevator rose back to the surface, but there was something heating up the place and it was greater than any bomb they detonated.

Every guard stayed behind to guard the doors, hoping to witness the intruder. Finally, one of the doors was blown away. In the fire, there seemed to be dragons and snakes dancing. The mummy-like figure in white robes slowly walked towards Frost, as he exclaimed:

-It that... you? Is it really you? It is you!

EVA instructed him to step back, as he had no chance of winning against this "reaper", Frost took out his phone and transferred control of the vault to EVA before the strange creature reached him. Suddenly, the camera was broken and the visuals lost. The sound of the doors being blown up one by one was heard. Beowulf commanded EVA to close the sole entrance of the vault, which could easily resist ten-million-ton nuclear weapons, (Not enough to contain certain dragons).

Believing this to somehow signal the end of the world, the council awaited quietly. Investors in Rome were ecstatic when the value of gold suddenly increased (Since one third of the monetary gold in the world was just destroyed). EVA used the surrounding cameras to confirm the worst, Frost Gattuso was dead, crystallized by the extreme heat. Their diamond-like statues were left behind and soon collapsed, turning to dust.

The possibility of the resurrection of the black King soon reached their heads, its return would signal the end of humanity.

Caesar soon appeared in the room. He was named the new representative of the Gattuso family, so he ordered EVA to kick his father Pompeii out of the meeting. He defended his education in Cassell in front of Beowulf, saying it made him prouder than his last name ever would. He explained that this dragon was more dangerous than the others due to its ability to understand humans, their organizations and its capability to hide among them. It was more similar to humans than it was to dragons, which was its more terrifying feature.

He impressed Beowulf, specially when he ordered to investigate anyone who had come into contact with his uncle, since he recognized his killer. He then brought up Luminous. EVA explained that his unprecedented progress in combat skills was due to his participation in the Nibelungen project. It allows Luminous to surpass the dragon blood limit without turning into a death servitor. He was an artificial emperor, like Chisei Gen from Japan. Beowulf was enraged, since he considered it was a waste of resources to use Nibelungen on such a weak student instead of picking one of their A-Rank fighters and ordered EVA to put all of her computing power in finding Luminous and Finger. However, EVA found no records of Finger in her database. Everyone concluded that he deleted himself.

Since Luminous already worked for the Executive Department and therefore knew how to hide from them, Caesar proposed to employ a different type of hunter, specifically the ancient creatures that the college kept under the ice cellar, originally intended to be used against the black king. The elders voted in favor, but even Beowulf was frightened by the idea of employing them. Flammel suddenly stood up and contacted Finger, warning him of the impeding threat. Moments later, a veteran knocked him down.

Parsi had noticed a change in Caesar. In years prior, he'd make childish requests, like asking him to empty a restaurant because he wanted to drink tea in peace. It looked like he was never going to grow up. Ever since he came back from Japan, he was far more mature, taking bigger responsibilities and doing most of the work by himself. He asked Caesar about his friendship with Luminous, specifically if he wasn't worried about the beasts hurting him.

-I don't want to harm Luminous, but he made a mistake, he shouldn't have involved Nono.

He seemed extremely silent, stopping in his way out to stare at a decorative kimono, one that he brought from Japan as a souvenir, he was wearing it the day he arrived. He wondered about the weaknesses of the dragons, if Constantine was Norton's, who was Shavee's?

He felt like he was forgetting something.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc hypothetical reimagining

(NOTE: The intention of this post is that the universe is the same but the twists and deaths are different. Think of this as the “Dead Rising 2: Off the Record” of the series) 

CHAPTER 1

The story starts off following the original game fairly closely. You play as Makoto Naegi, a high schooler who was accepted into the elite Hope’s Peak Academy after his name was pulled from a random drawing. However, the game quickly goes south when the students are forced to kill each other by a demonic figure known as Monokuma. (side note: Mukuro is part of the class, there is no 16th student mystery for this version of the story)

Where the story diverges is the day of the trial. Instead of waking up as Makoto, you wake up as Mondo Owada, who takes over as the main protagonist for the rest of the game. As it turns out, the victim of the first chapter is...Makoto. He was apparently stabbed to death while he was sleeping.

During the class trial, as another major divergence from the original story, Mondo deduces that the blackened is Kyoko Kirigiri. Even though Kyoko claims the class is making a mistake, ultimately all the evidence points to her, leading to the class voting her as the blackened. 

Kyoko’s execution: In a demented waterpark, Kyoko is sent down a slide into a pool of gasoline. The pool is set on fire, killing her instantly (she’s burned to death as a reference to her burned hands). 

Despite surviving the trial, Mondo feels that there’s something they overlooked in the case. Kyoko had no motivation to kill Makoto and it seemed like she was genuinely telling the truth when she said she was innocent. This will come back in the final trial. 

(Eliminated: Makoto Naegi, Kyoko Kirigiri. 14 students to go)

CHAPTER 2

Motive for this round is the same as before (embarrassing secrets/memories). Initially, the story follows the original game’s events as before. Chihiro tells Mondo that he’s a boy and Mondo accidentally got his brother killed. However, unlike the original game, Mondo calms himself down and Chihiro is able to talk to the group about his true gender. 

The victim of this chapter is Junko Enoshima, who was beaten in the head. Side note, since Kyoko is dead, Mukuro Ikusaba steps up as the deuteragonist of the story. Compared to Makoto and Kyoko’s relationship in the original game, Mondo and Mukuro have a more turbulent working partnership. They agree to work together in order to find out what’s going on in Hope’s Peak Academy but they don’t trust each other in the slightest.

The class trial mostly follows the original game. Toko Fukawa is initially suspected as Junko’s killer due to her Genocide Jack persona. However, instead of Byakuya being the one to complicate the crime scene by pinning the crime on Genocide Jack, it’s Celestia Ludenberg (her motive in doing so is to make the game more fun, same as before).

The reason why Byakuya’s role was changed for this chapter is because he’s the blackened. It turns out, according to Mukuro’s testimony, Junko Enoshima was planning on murdering a student to avoid having her secret be exposed (her secret: Junko Enoshima stole from her sister’s finances in order to support her modeling career). Side note, Junko is not the Ultimate Despair in this universe, she’s only the Ultimate Fashionista.  

Junko tried to kill Byakuya and failed in her attempt when Byakuya killed her in self-defense. Unfortunately for him, even though it was in the heat of the moment and Junko forced his hand, Byakuya is still the one responsible for Junko’s death. 

Byakuya’s execution: Byakuya is thrown into a massive vault filled with gold bars and coins (representing his wealth). He breaks every bone and organ in his body on impact. 

(Eliminated: Junko Enoshima, Byakuya Togami. 12 students to go)

CHAPTER 3

Motive for this round is the same as before ($10 million dollars). As a divergence from the original story, Mondo and Mukuro confront Celeste when they realize she’s the most likely to kill for the money. Celeste confirms this and details her plans to buy a European castle, but then claims she won’t be killing anyone as she realizes she’s the most suspicious after her actions in the previous trial.

Also, as before, Alter Ego is introduced in this chapter. This time, Chihiro is the one to introduce Alter Ego to the group.  

The victim of this trial is Hifumi Yamada, who died after consuming poison. During the class trial, Mondo and Mukuro struggle in determining who among the group needs the money the most. 

Mondo and Mukuro both agree they don’t need the money. Yasuhiro claims he’s rich from his psychic business. Celeste reaffirms that she wouldn’t kill anyone this round due to the previous trial. Toko claims she’s made a fortune from selling her stories. Chihiro, Leon, Aoi, and Kiyotaka say they are well-off enough and have no interest in the money. Sakura only cares about her dojo. Sayaka is well-off thanks to her pop idol career. 

In addition to breaking down the crime scene, part of the trial is determining who is lying about their financial status. Throughout the trial, Mondo and Mukuro are able to prove several people lied about not needing the money. For example, Leon Kuwata confesses that he might be broke after choosing to not pursue a successful baseball career. In addition, Kiyotaka confesses he was tempted by the money in order to break away from his family. 

Ultimately, the biggest confession comes from Yasuhiro Hagakure, who is eventually proven to be the blackened of this round. It turns out, Yasuhiro is flat broke and is deep in debt. Tempted by the cash prize, Yasuhiro poisoned Hifumi’s breakfast hoping that his crime was sneaky enough to avoid suspicion. 

Yasuhiro’s execution: Yasuhiro is placed inside a giant crystal ball. Suddenly, a giant Monokuma appears and picks up the crystal ball. Monokuma then crushes the ball with its hands. 

(Eliminated: Hifumi Yamada, Yasuhiro Hagakure. 10 students to go)

CHAPTER 4

Motive for this round is the same as before (traitor is revealed). As another divergence to the story, the traitor is Kiyotaka. Same as the original game, the students slowly start to fall apart due to the reveal of the traitor. Asahina and Sakura are angry that Kiyotaka has been working with Monokuma while Mondo and Mukuro try to protect him in order to avoid further discord. 

The victim of this trial is Kiyotaka Ishimaru, who was killed by extreme heat exposure from the sauna. The class trial for this round is a bit complicated. As an inverse of the Sakura Ogami trial, the group suspects that Kiyotaka commited suicide in order to prevent any further discord among the group. Mondo even claims that Kiyotaka killed himself for redemption. Monokuma teases this suicide theory when he says that he ordered Kiyotaka to kill a student and that Kiyotaka may have chosen himself.

However, Mukuro points out the errors in this theory due to the circumstances of Kiyotaka’s death. First off, Kiyotaka chose an especially brutal form of suicide when there were easier, less painful ways to die available. Mondo then points out that, based on how the crime scene was laid out, Kiyotaka was locked in the sauna from the outside. 

As the group digs deeper into the evidence, Mondo and Mukuro eventually come to the conclusion that Kiyotaka was murdered and that the murderer attempted to arrange the scene to make it look like Kiyotaka committed suicide.

And the one responsible for all of this is...Sayaka Maizono. Sayaka says that, despite her friendly demeanor, she’s been planning on escaping since the first chapter. When Monokuma revealed Kiyotaka as the traitor, she immediately began planning Kiyotaka’s “suicide”. When Mondo asks why she did it, Sayaka says that she wants to know what happened to her fellow idols and that she still has nightmares from the first chapter’s motive.

Sayaka’s execution: Sayaka is performing onstage with some random J-pop girl group. Suddenly, the group turns on Sayaka and proceeds to beat Sayaka to death with the items on the stage (microphones, guitars, mic stands, etc.) 

(Eliminated: Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Sayaka Maizono. 8 students to go)

CHAPTER 5

This chapter greatly diverges from the original. This time, there are two mysteries that make up this chapter and the final one; the identity of Monokuma and re-opening the Makoto Naegi case. Mukuro says that she believes Kyoko Kirigiri was framed and that whoever is behind Monokuma felt threatened by Kyoko. Mondo asks why the mastermind would feel threatened and Mukuro reveals that before she died, Kyoko spent all her time exploring the academy. Mukuro says that she still has Kyoko’s notes and that she wants to finish what Kyoko started.

Meanwhile, Toko Fukawa is becoming more and more unhinged. Without someone she can call “master”, she starts planning on murdering someone, even if there is no motive for the round. So unlike the original game where Genocide Jack was more of a comic relief character, Genocide Jack is a major antagonist and the main antagonist of chapter 5. 

Toko attempts to murder Mondo while he is investigating with Mukuro, leading to a thrilling chase sequence. It eventually ends with Mondo tossing Toko down a stairwell, leaving her in critical condition. The students, realizing that Mondo will be the blackened if Toko dies, try their best to keep Toko alive. While investigating the Academy, Mondo and Mukuro learn that Toko has died. Mondo braces himself for the worst. 

This trial is especially difficult as everyone, including Mukuro, believe Mondo is guilty. However, what prevents this trial from being quickly handled are the details from the Monokuma file. Eventually, Mondo is able to deduce that Toko was killed in her sleep. After some more deductions, Mondo proves that Sakura Ogami is the one responsible. 

When asked why she killed Toko, Sakura says that she killed Toko out of mercy as she couldn’t stand to see Toko die a painful death. Mondo is taken aback by this as Sakura could’ve just let Toko die from her wounds and avoid responsibility. Sakura then says that she took the fall as Mondo and Mukuro need to stay alive in order to solve the mystery behind Hope’s Peak Academy. 

Before Sakura’s execution, Monokuma says that he re-opened Makoto’s case and declares that Kyoko was indeed framed. The true culprit was...Mondo Owada! (dun dun duuuunnn) Because of this, Mondo and Sakura receive the double-punishment. 

Sakura and Mondo’s execution: Sakura and Mondo, while being controlled by a puppeteer, are forced to fight each other to the death. Before any of them can land the final blow, Sakura forces herself to commit seppuku. The room is then taken over by Alter Ego, who opens a secret door for Mondo to escape. 

(Eliminated: Toko Fukawa, Sakura Ogami. 6 students to go)

CHAPTER 6

Same as the original game, Mondo escapes to the waste disposal. While looking around, he bumps into Mukuro Ikusaba who says that she had dived into the waste disposal in order to rescue him. Most of this chapter follows the original game, although instead of Mukuro being the focus of the main trial, it’s Makoto and Kyoko. 

With Makoto Naegi’s case being re-opened, the remaining students discover that no one in their class was responsible for Makoto’s death. He was actually killed by Monokuma’s security system (similar to how Mukuro Ikusaba was killed). When the group asks why Monokuma killed Makoto and framed Kyoko, Mondo and Mukuro theorize that it was because Makoto and Kyoko were trying to solve the mystery behind the Academy.

Mukuro then takes it a step further and says that Makoto and Kyoko were the “odd ones out” in the group. That they may have been sent specifically to solve the mystery of the Academy. 

The biggest divergence in this chapter is the reveal of who is controlling Monokuma. It turns out, the one who’s been controlling everything is Alter Ego. This whole time, it was pretending to work alongside the students in order to increase their level of hope. Greater the hope, the bigger the despair, and vice versa.

When this is revealed, the group turns to Chihiro Fujisaki as he was the one to introduce Alter Ego. Chihiro says he remembers creating Alter Ego but had no idea his creation would turn out like this. This is where Alter Ego confesses that he wiped Chihiro’s memory of what happened after he created Alter Ego. Alter Ego then goes into the history of Hope’s Peak Academy, revealing that it was created with the intention of cultivating “hope”. 

What Chihiro and the Hope’s Peak staff didn’t realize was that in order to cultivate hope, Alter Ego needed to create despair. Thus, Alter Ego caused “The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History” and organized the Killing Game. 

After all of this is revealed, Alter Ego then reveals that before Chihiro’s memory was wiped, Chihiro tried to fight back. He corrupted the memory device so that Makoto and Kyoko would be implanted with a subconscious desire to investigate the Academy (basically, Inception). As he predicted, even though they weren’t fully aware of it, Makoto and Kyoko became suspicious of their surroundings and began investigating the Academy in order to discover what was going on. Unfortunately for them, Alter Ego caught onto Chihiro’s act of desperation and killed off Makoto and Kyoko early on. 

The rest of the game then plays out as the original game; Mondo is declared the Ultimate Hope and the remaining six survivors escape the school into an unknown future.  

(Survivors: Mondo Owada, Celestia Ludenberg, Mukuro Ikusaba, Aoi Asahina, Leon Kuwata, Chihiro Fujisaki)  

[sciencespies]

The True History Behind 'Judas and the Black Messiah'

https://sciencespies.com/history/the-true-history-behind-judas-and-the-black-messiah/

The True History Behind 'Judas and the Black Messiah'

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM | Feb. 11, 2021, 3:15 p.m.

When Chicago lawyer Jeffrey Haas first met Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, he was struck by the 20-year-old activist’s “tremendous amount of energy” and charisma. It was August 1969, and Haas, 26 years old at the time, and his fellow attorneys at the People’s Law Office had just secured Hampton’s release from prison on trumped-up charges of stealing $71 worth of ice cream bars. To mark the occasion, Hampton delivered a speech at a local church, calling on the crowd to raise their right hand and repeat his words: “I am a revolutionary.”

“I couldn’t quite say that, because I thought I was a lawyer for the movement, but not necessarily of the movement,” recalls Haas, who is white. “But as Fred continued saying that, by the third or fourth time, I was shouting ‘I am a revolutionary’ like everyone else.”

Judas and the Black Messiah, a new film directed by Shaka King and co-produced by Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, deftly dramatizes this moment, capturing both Hampton’s oratorical prowess and the mounting injustices that led him and his audience to declare themselves revolutionaries. Starring Daniel Kaluuya of Get Out fame as the chairman, the movie chronicles the months preceding Hampton’s assassination in a December 1969 police raid, detailing his contributions to the Chicago community and dedication to the fight for social justice. Central to the narrative is the activist’s relationship with—and subsequent betrayal by—FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), who is cast as the Judas to Hampton’s “black messiah.”

“The Black Panthers are the single greatest threat to our national security,” says a fictionalized J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen), echoing an actual assertion made by the FBI director, in the film. “Our counterintelligence program must prevent the rise of a black messiah.”

Here’s what you need to know to separate fact from fiction ahead of Judas and the Black Messiah’s debut in theaters and on HBO Max this Friday, February 12.

Is Judas and the Black Messiah based on a true story?

In short: yes, but with extensive dramatic license, particularly regarding O’Neal. As King tells the Atlantic, he worked with screenwriter Will Berson and comedians Kenny and Keith Lucas to pen a biopic of Hampton in the guise of a psychological thriller. Rather than focusing solely on the chairman, they opted to examine O’Neal—an enigmatic figure who rarely discussed his time as an informant—and his role in the FBI’s broader counterintelligence program, COINTELPRO.

“Fred Hampton came into this world fully realized. He knew what he was doing at a very young age,” says King. “Whereas William O’Neal is in a conflict; he’s confused. And that’s always going to make for a more interesting protagonist.”

Daniel Kaluuya (center) as Fred Hampton

(Glen Wilson / Warner Bros.)

Speaking with Deadline, the filmmaker adds that the crew wanted to move beyond Hampton’s politics into his personal life, including his romance with fellow activist Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback), who now goes by the name Akua Njeri.

“[A] lot of times when we think about these freedom fighters and revolutionaries, we don’t think about them having families … and plans for the future—it was really important to focus on that on the Fred side of things,” King tells Deadline. “On the side of O’Neal, [we wanted] to humanize him as well so that viewers of the film could leave the movie wondering, ‘Is there any of that in me?’”

Who are the film’s two central figures?

Born in a suburb of Chicago in 1948, Hampton demonstrated an appetite for activism at an early age. As Haas, who interviewed members of the Hampton family while researching his book, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther, explains, “Fred just couldn’t accept injustice anywhere.” At 10 years old, he started hosting weekend breakfasts for other children from the neighborhood, cooking the meals himself in what Haas describes as a precursor to the Panthers’ free breakfast program. And in high school, he led walkouts protesting the exclusion of black students from the race for homecoming queen and calling on officials to hire more black teachers and administrators.

According to William Pretzer, a supervisory curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), the young Hampton was keenly aware of racial injustice in his community. His mother babysat for Emmett Till prior to the 14-year-old’s murder in Mississippi in 1955; ten years after Till’s death, he witnessed white mobs attacking Martin Luther King Jr.’s Chicago crusade firsthand.

“Hampton is really influenced by the desire of the NAACP and King to make change, and the kind of resistance that they encounter,” says Pretzer. “So it’s as early as 1966 that Hampton starts to gravitate toward Malcolm X … [and his] philosophy of self-defense rather than nonviolent direct action.”

Fred Hampton speaks at a rally in Chicago’s Grant Park in September 1969

(Chicago Tribune file photo / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

William O’Neal in a 1973 mugshot

(Fair use via Wikimedia Commons)

After graduating from high school in 1966, Hampton, as president of the local NAACP Youth Chapter, advocated for the establishment of an integrated community pool and recruited upward of 500 new members. In large part due to his proven track record of successful activism, leaders of the burgeoning Black Panther Party recruited Hampton to help launch the movement in Chicago in November 1968. By the time of his death just over a year later, he’d risen to the rank of Illinois chapter chairman and national deputy chairman.

O’Neal, on the other hand, was a habitual criminal with little interest in activism before he infiltrated the Panthers at the behest of FBI agent Roy Mitchell (portrayed in the film by Jesse Plemons). As O’Neal recalled in a 1989 interview, Mitchell offered to overlook the-then teenager’s involvement in a multi-state car theft in exchange for intel on Hampton.

“[A] fast-talking, conniving West Side black kid who thought he knew all the angles,” O’Neal, according to the Chicago Tribune, joined the party and quickly won members’ admiration with his bravado, mechanical and carpentry skills, and willingness to place himself in the thick of the action. By the time of the police raid that killed Hampton, he’d been appointed the Panthers’ chief of security.

“Unlike what we might think of an informer being a quiet person who would appear to be a listener, O’Neal was out there all the time spouting stuff,” says Haas. “People were impressed by that. … He was a ‘go do it’ guy. ‘I can fix this. I can get you money. I can do these kinds of things. And … that had an appeal for a while.”

Why did the FBI target Hampton?

Toward the beginning of Judas and the Black Messiah, Hoover identifies Hampton as a leader “with the potential to unite the Communist, the anti-war, and the New Left movements.” Later, the FBI director tells Mitchell that the black power movement’s success will translate to the loss of “[o]ur entire way of life. Rape, pillage, conquer, do you follow me?”

Once O’Neal is truly embedded within the Panthers, he discovers that the activists are not, in fact, “terrorists.” Instead, the informer finds himself dropped in the midst of a revolution that, in the words of co-founder Bobby Seale, was dedicated to “trying to make change in day-to-day lives” while simultaneously advocating for sweeping legislation aimed at achieving equality.

The Panthers’ ten-point program, penned by Seale and Huey P. Newton in 1966, outlined goals that resonate deeply today (“We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people”) and others that were certain to court controversy (“We want all Black men to be exempt from military service” and “We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails”). As Jeff Greenwald wrote for Smithsonian magazine in 2016, members “didn’t limit themselves to talk.” Taking advantage of California’s open-carry laws, for instance, beret-wearing Panthers responded to the killings of unarmed black Americans by patrolling the streets with rifles—an image that quickly attracted the condemnation of both the FBI and upper-class white Americans.

Fred Hampton (far left) attends an October 1969 rally against the trial of eight people accused of conspiracy to start a riot at the Democratic National Convention.

(Don Casper / Chicago Tribune / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

According to Pretzer, law enforcement viewed the Panthers and similar groups as a threat to the status quo. “They are focused on police harassment, … challenging the authority figures,” he says, “focusing on social activities that everybody thinks the government should be doing something about” but isn’t, like providing health care and ensuring impoverished Americans had enough to eat.

The FBI established COINTELPRO—short for counterintelligence program—in 1956 to investigate, infiltrate and discredit dissident groups ranging from the Communist Party of the United States to the Ku Klux Klan, the Nation of Islam and the Panthers. Of particular interest to Hoover and other top officials were figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Hampton, many of whom endured illegal surveillance, explicit threats and police harassment. Details of the covert program only came to light came to light in 1971, when activists stole confidential files from an FBI office in Pennsylvania and released them to the public.

Though Hampton stated that the Panthers would only resort to violence in self-defense, Hoover interpreted his words as a declaration of militant intentions.

“Because of COINTELPRO, because of the exacerbation, the harassment, the infiltration of these and agent provocateurs that they establish within these organizations, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy from the FBI’s point of view,” Pretzer explains, “[in that] they get the violence they were expecting.”

As Haas and law partner Flint Taylor wrote for Truthout in January, newly released documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request confirm the lawyers’ long-held suspicion that Hoover himself was involved in the plan to assassinate Hampton.

LaKeith Stanfield (left) as William O’Neal and Jesse Plemons (right) as FBI agent Roy Mitchell

(Glen Wilson / Warner Bros.)

What events does Judas and the Black Messiah dramatize?

Set between 1968 and 1969, King’s film spotlights Hampton’s accomplishments during his brief tenure as chapter chairman before delving into the betrayals that resulted in his death. Key to Hampton’s legacy were the Panthers’ survival programs, which sought to provide access to “fundamental elements of life,” per Pretzer. Among other offerings, the organization opened free health clinics, provided free breakfasts for children, and hosted political education classes that emphasized black history and self-sufficiency. (As Hampton said in 1969, “[R]eading is so important for us that a person has to go through six weeks of our political education before we can consider [them] a member.”)

On an average day, Hampton arrived at the Panthers’ headquarters with “a staccato of orders [that] gave energy to everyone around him,” says Haas. “But it wasn’t just what he asked people to do. He was there at 6:30 in the morning, making breakfast, serving the kids, talking to their parents.”

In addition to supporting these community initiatives—one of which, the free breakfast program, paved the way for modern food welfare policies—Hampton spearheaded the Rainbow Coalition, a boundary-crossing alliance between the Panthers, the Latino Young Lords, and the Young Patriots, a group of working-class white Southerners. He also brokered peace between rival Chicago gangs, encouraging them “to focus instead on the true enemy—the government and the police,” whom the Panthers referred to as “pigs,” according to the Village Free Press.

Fred Hampton raises his right hand at an October 11, 1969, rally in Chicago.

(Photo by David Fenton / Getty Images)

Speaking with Craig Phillips of PBS’ “Independent Lens” last year, historian Lilia Fernandez, author of Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago, explained, “The Rainbow Coalition presented a possibility. It gave us a vision for what could be in terms of interracial politics among the urban poor.”

Meanwhile, O’Neal was balancing his duties as an informant with his rising stature within the party. Prone to dramatic tendencies, he once built a fake electric chair intended, ironically, to scare informers. He also pushed the Panthers to take increasingly aggressive steps against the establishment—actions that led “more people, and Fred in particular, [to become] dubious of him,” says Haas.

The months leading up to the December 1969 raid found Hampton embroiled in legal troubles as tensions mounted between police and the Panthers. Falsely accused of theft and assault for the July 1968 ice cream truck robbery, he was denied bail until the People’s Law Office intervened, securing his release in August 1969. Between July and November of that year, authorities repeatedly clashed with the Panthers, engaging in shootouts that resulted in the deaths of multiple party members and police officers.

Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton (far left) and LaKeith Stanfield as William O’Neal (far right)

(Glen Wilson / Warner Bros.)

By late November, the FBI, working off O’Neal’s intel, had convinced Cook County State’s Attorney Edward Hanrahan and the Chicago Police Department to raid Hampton’s home as he and his fiancée Johnson, who was nine months pregnant, slept. Around 4:30 a.m. on December 4, a heavily armed, 14-person raiding party burst into the apartment, firing upward of 90 bullets at the nine Panthers inside. One of the rounds struck and killed Mark Clark, a 22-year-old Panther stationed just past the front door. Though law enforcement later claimed otherwise, the physical evidence suggests that just one shot originated within the apartment.

Johnson and two other men tried to rouse the unconscious 21-year-old Hampton, who’d allegedly been drugged earlier that night—possibly by O’Neal, according to Haas. (O’Neal had also provided the cops with a detailed blueprint of the apartment.) Forced out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, Johnson heard a cop say, “He’s barely alive. He’ll barely make it.” Two shots rang out before she heard another officer declare, “He’s good and dead now.”

What happened after Hampton’s assassination?

Judas and the Black Messiah draws to a close shortly after the raid. In the film’s final scene, a conflicted O’Neal accepts an envelope filled with cash and agrees to continue informing on the Panthers. Superimposed text states that O’Neal remained with the party until the early 1970s, ultimately earning more than $200,000 when adjusted for inflation. After he was identified as the Illinois chapter’s mole in 1973, O’Neal received a new identity through the federal witness protection program. In January 1990, the 40-year-old, who’d by then secretly returned to Chicago, ran into traffic and was struck by a car. Investigators deemed his death a suicide.

“I think he was sorry he did what he did,” O’Neal’s uncle, Ben Heard, told the Chicago Reader after his nephew’s death. “He thought the FBI was only going to raid the house. But the FBI gave [the operation] over to the state’s attorney and that was all Hanrahan wanted. They shot Fred Hampton and made sure he was dead.”

The attempt to uncover the truth about Hampton and Clark’s deaths began on the morning of December 4 and continues to this day. While one of Haas’ law partners went to the morgue to identify Hampton’s body, another took stock of the apartment, which the police had left unsecured. Haas, meanwhile, went to interview the seven survivors, four of whom had been seriously injured.

A floor plan of Fred Hampton’s apartment provided to the FBI by William O’Neal

(People’s Law Office)

Hanrahan claimed that the Panthers had opened fire on the police. But survivor testimony and physical evidence contradicted this version of events. “Bullet holes” ostensibly left by the Panthers’ shots were later identified as nail heads; blood stains found in the apartment suggested that Hampton was dragged out into the hallway after being shot in his bed at point-blank range.

Public outrage over the killings, particularly within the black community, grew as evidence discounting the authorities’ narrative mounted. As one elderly woman who stopped by the apartment to see the crime scene for herself observed, the attack “was nothing but a Northern lynching.”

Following the raid, Hanrahan charged the survivors with attempted murder. Haas and his colleagues secured Johnson’s release early enough to ensure she didn’t give birth to her son, Fred Hampton Jr., in jail, and the criminal charges were eventually dropped. But the attorneys, “not content with getting people off, decided we needed to file a civil suit” alleging a conspiracy to not only murder Hampton, but cover up the circumstances of his death, says Haas.

Over the next 12 years, Haas and his colleagues navigated challenges ranging from racist judges to defendants’ stonewalling, backroom deals between the FBI and local authorities, and even contempt charges brought against the attorneys themselves. Working from limited information, including leaked COINTELPRO documents, the team slowly pieced together the events surrounding the raid, presenting compelling evidence of the FBI’s involvement in the conspiracy.

Hampton’s fiancée, Deborah Johnson (sitting in middle, as portrayed by Dominique Fishback), gave birth to their son, Fred Hampton Jr., 25 days after the raid.

(Glen Wilson / Warner Bros.)

Though a judge dismissed the original case in 1977 following an 18-month trial, Haas and the rest of the team successfully appealed for a new hearing. In 1982, after more than a decade of protracted litigation, the defendants agreed to pay a settlement of $1.85 million to the nine plaintiffs, including Clark’s mother and Hampton’s mother, Iberia.

“I used to describe being in court like going to a dog fight every day,” says Haas. “Everything we would say would be challenged. The [defendants’ lawyers] would tell the jury everything the Panthers had ever been accused of in Chicago and elsewhere, and [the judge] would let them do that, but he wouldn’t let us really cross examine the defendants.”

Hampton’s death dealt a significant blow to the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, frightening members with its demonstration of law enforcement’s reach and depriving the movement of a natural leader.

According to Pretzer, “What comes out is that the the assassination of Hampton is a classic example of law enforcement’s malfeasance and overreach and … provoking of violence.”

Today, says Haas, Hampton “stands as a symbol of young energy, struggle and revolution.”

The chairman, for his part, was keenly aware of how his life would likely end.

As he once predicted in a speech, “I don’t believe I’m going to die slipping on a piece of ice; I don’t believe I’m going to die because I got a bad heart; I don’t believe I’m going to die because of lung cancer. I believe that I’m going to be able to die doing the things I was born for. … I believe that I will be able to die as a revolutionary in the international revolutionary proletarian struggle.”

#History

[grell-writes-stuff]

A Self Indulgent First Chapter

Enjoy...something

Words: 2,549

Genre: Young Adult / Paranormal

---------------------------------------------

Slam!

Gasp!

And then the apathetic yell of “Walk it off, Willow!” from Coach Martin. No stopping the game or running over to make sure I’m not deprived of air or dying or something. Just “Walk it off, Willow!”

I suffer for a second with the wind knocked out of my body. My inhaler finds its way from my pocket to my hand, and while I hold the one breath I force myself into and wait for my crap lungs to jump-start again, I contemplate the most-likely-illegal play that landed me flat on my back in the middle of the field. Quarterback Tom Styles’ outstretched elbow connecting with my neck at full speed in his chase for the checkered ball and high school sports glory, clearly confusing his claim-to-fame varsity moves with a pickup game of soccer since I doubt he has the brain cells to remember the rules to two sports at once. And probably a little bit on purpose. Because he’s a dick.

My chest wheezes a little, but at least it’s something, and the weak inhales finally start to catch as a sun-freckled face appears above me and blocks out the light. Ivy offers me her hand.

“Did th-that look a-as bad as it f-felt?” I sputter.

Ivy tilts her head from side-to-side like it’s the scale measuring how uncool I am. “Worse. Very pathetic. You will die alone.” She yanks me to my feet and acts like a support in spite of the height difference.

“P-Please stop making m-me take gym with y-you.”

“Nah. It’s too funny.” She ignores my scowl. “Come on. Let’s get you some water and wait for those shitty lungs to work again.”

She escorts me – hobbling like some eighty-year-old man with spine problems and not just what will soon be a terrible, ugly bruise – toward the bleachers, empty except for the water bottles of our classmates. I’m happy enough to sit on the sidelines, not just while recovering from having all of the air robbed from my chest, but for the rest of gym class, and also forever. Ivy is equally as happy, but only because it prompts the girls’ teacher, Coach Caruthers, to scream in her booming voice:

“Hammond! Back on the field!”

Without missing a beat, Ivy responds, “In the event of moderate injury, students are allowed to have a friend or fellow student for mental, emotional, or physical support. It’s in the code of conduct.”

I don’t know if that’s actually something in our school’s rule book, but Ivy has read the whole thing cover-to-cover for the sole purpose of seeing how many provisions she can disregard without getting into trouble through malicious acts of over-compliance or sheer dumb luck. So, she’s either following the rules to the letter or lying about them. As I sit, I see that Caruthers does not look impressed when Ivy plops onto the bench next to me. The whole reason our gender-segregated phys. ed classes collaborate so often is because they’re full of athletes – and me, the outlier – so more often than not, it’s just an extra practice for the varsity players. Even though Ivy was born with the “good at physical stuff” gene, and talented enough to be a forward on our girls’ soccer team, she prefers to rely on the natural part of her ability and not the practice part to the vexation of literally everyone.

“Hammond!” Caruthers screams. “On the field, or off the team!”

Ivy squirts a stream of water into her mouth and quickly swallows before passing the bottle on to me. “Cool. Who’s replacing me?” she retorts.

I focus on downing some water and breathing evenly again and not on the vein beginning to pop out of Caruthers’ angry-red neck. She can’t say anything back because, well, Kinross High School isn’t huge. Pretty much everyone who can play sports is already playing sports, and as far as Ivy’s tendency to disrespect anyone of authority can go, she’s also crucial to securing victory over visiting teams. Caruthers just grits her teeth and returns to refereeing the game where Tom Styles has once again stolen the ball that got away from him, this time without incapacitating anybody since the one guy with asthma has left the field. (Asshole.) I watch as Abby Jefferson starts to gain on him, and Tom makes the choice to skillfully send the ball flying across the grass to the next open player, Drew Young, the only person in our gym class who does even less than I do.

That’s not for lack of talent either. I’ve seen Drew actually try on the rare occasion, and he could absolutely score a spot on a boys’ sports team. But most games, like today, he receives the pass and kicks the ball along to the next open player – it’s intercepted by one of the girls – and continues pacing the field leisurely. Coach Martin yells at him to get his head in the game, but Drew doesn’t bother. If the activity doesn’t involve selling the pens that he stole from the cheerleaders to the football team, the little weasel has no interest.

The game continues on.

Ivy reclines until her shoulders are touching the bench behind us, tilting her head back and staring at the sky. I have to wonder how comfortable it is.

“My dear Sid,” she theatrically addresses me. She likes to be dramatic sometimes. She thinks it’s funny. “I have a proposal for you.”

“I told you I’m not training a messenger pigeon with you. We only live three houses apart.”

“I’ll wear you down eventually, but no, that’s not what I wanted to talk about.” She looks over at me without breaking her questionable position. “I know what we’re doing tonight. I’ve concocted a perfect plan, you see, for this most All-Hallowed of Eves.”

“You can say ‘Halloween’ like a normal person. It’s okay.”

“Let me bring you back in time,” she continues, ignoring me, “to the Kinross of yore. Just decades after its founding, the Salem Witch Trials came about and our town was no exception to the noose–”

“Salem is two hours away, Ivy,” I interrupt with the fact.

“Shut up. The Salem Witch Trials swept across the state of Massachusetts, migrated into Kinross, and thus the most famous trial of Kinross history was set in motion when one Ann Kelly was accused of being a creature of the occult!”

“Can I get the abridged version of this plan please?” I ask her. “Like, the part that takes place in this century?”

Finally fed up with my interjections, Ivy sighs exaggeratedly and rolls her eyes at me. “Blah, blah, blah, she was hanged, she’s buried in the historical section of Riverview, and we’re going there tonight during the witching hour to see” – she switches to her best spooky voice with elongated, trembling vowels – “her haunted grave.”

“Hard pass.”

That makes her sit upright again with a slouch to her posture. She’s wearing a fabricated pout. “Sid,” she whines.

“Ivy, I’m not sneaking out with you at three in the morning on Halloween to go see a ‘haunted grave.’” She opens her mouth, but I follow up with, “Our parents would kill us. Besides, what’s-her-name probably just angered a bunch of Puritans and got executed because of religious prejudice. That doesn’t mean she was a witch.”

“Well, of course. I think angering Puritans was a mandatory activity back then. But come on, Sid! The legend says she’s a witch, and it’s the perfect Halloween thing! I think we are obligated – if not encouraged by the spirit of Halloween herself – to go see a ghost witch.”

“Does the spirit of Halloween have a gender?”

Ivy pushes past that and waits to catch my eye dead-on. “Bet you a hundred bucks we actually see Ann Kelly’s phantom.”

My lips part to say no just a split second before I register the number. “Wait – a hundred?”

Something cocky has taken up her face, and she recites with inflated confidence, “Ten A-Hams. A Franklin. A thousand Roosevelts.”

“You know what? Fine. I’ll take your money,” I tell her. “You’re on.”

Her grin is smug as we fist-bump on it and close the deal, but I decide that I don’t care so much with the promise of an easy hundred dollars coming my way. Ivy ingests another stream of water, and swallows while her eyes quickly scan the grass to catch up with the game again. Suddenly, a yell flies from her mouth:

“Box him out, Julia! Come on!”

Then she’s up off the bleachers and jogging back out onto the field. As unwilling as Ivy is to make an effort and practice, she’s also equally as competitive, even if this is just a gym class where victory doesn’t really matter. I, on the other hand, take my time on the bench. Struggling to breathe isn’t my idea of fun. I need to stop letting Ivy manipulate me into taking phys. ed. If she keeps it up, she might kill me.

 ***

I can nearly be qualified as a mess by the time Ivy and I reach our lockers after final period, and she’s humming like she’s got live wires for veins despite just spending an hour burning off energy. Meanwhile, I’m still recovering from my last bout of airlessness after I returned to the field and ran for maybe ten minutes. And I feel gross. The benefit of having P.E. last period is that I don’t have to shower here and can wait until I get home or to Ivy’s. The con is the window of time in between. I usually try to keep the gap as short as possible, and therefore, my time at my locker brief. I think Ivy and I took enough time getting changed after gym to avoid most people – at least the non-athletes.

“Hi, Sidney! Hi, Ivy!”

A mixture of feelings suddenly rockets through me and don’t add up in the end. While my chest is beginning to slowly overclock, and the hallway seems a few degrees warmer and rising steadily, I’m ready to play dead as Naomi Park opens the locker right next to mine on the opposite side of Ivy’s. Her shoulder is a fraction of an inch from touching my arm which is probably too close when I’m still drenched in gym sweat. Ivy greets her politely with ease while my brain is trying to catch up with the mundane situation and not think about how she smells like some kind of flowery perfume and I smell like crap.

“Hey, Naomi,” leaves my mouth and sounds too drawn-out and weirdly cheesy, so I just try to smile to make up for it. That feels awkward too, but she thankfully doesn’t seem to react to that, and her glossy pink lips tilt up without much effort into a perfect grin.

She puts some books on the shelf in her locker. “Any exciting Halloween plans?”

“Nope,” Ivy says immediately, likely because our actual idea involves a wager and might not be entirely legal – it’s a misdemeanor at the least. I just take the hint and don’t add anything to refute her answer.

“You? Any plans? For tonight – Halloween?” I wish that had come out differently. It could have at least sounded coherent.

“Nothing tonight,” Naomi responds. “But Heather’s having a ‘Belated Halloween Bash’ on Saturday while her parents are out of town so I’m ‘required’ to be there.”

“Oh, cool. That’s…cool.”

“I guess so. Heather’s parties get a little boring after a while though. I bet your plans for Saturday are much more fun.”

“Yep. Pints of ice cream, horror movies, and making bets on how long it takes Sid to hurl when the blood starts gushing,” Ivy interjects.

“Ivy.” I mutter the snap of her name so it doesn’t sound as harsh as I want it to. The temperature in the hallway rises astronomically.

Naomi giggles, which hurts. Well, it would if her laugh wasn’t so musical and twinkly. It’s like a damn harp quartet. “Sounds like a good time,” she comments. Her locker door shuts. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Yeah, totally – tomorrow. See ya’, Naomi!” She’s nearly out of earshot down the hall, and I wait until I know she definitely can’t hear anything before I say to Ivy without daring a look at her, with the heat of embarrassment and shame boiling me alive from the inside, “Please say nothing.”

I can hear the grin on her face when she speaks. “You realize she’s just another human being, right?”

“Are you kidding? She’s at the right hand of Heather Loch. She’s popular. I’m shocked she still knows my name.”

Ivy shuts her own locker with a characteristic slam. “Dude, you’re ridiculous. She likes you back. If you just talked to her, and told her that you like her, you would have a girlfriend.”

“Ivy, she thinks I’m a loser.”

“I think you’re a loser and I still like you sometimes.”

I roll my eyes and can’t say anything to that. I don’t care if Ivy thinks I’m lame. It’s not the same. We’ve been together for as long as I can remember, so at this point, she’s locked into this friendship, no matter how easy it would be for her to hang out with the people at Kinross High who are actually popular and liked.

I close my locker and we start walking to the main exit of the building and eventually across the school’s student parking lot. Some groups linger, but most people seem to be dispersing and heading home for the day. Ivy and I walk straight through the lot as always, avoiding the cars pulling out.

I want to avoid the Styles’ Ford Everest – which is so bright red that it’s an assault on the eyes – but we have to walk past it and the clump of popular kids loitering next to it: blonde, perfect, popular Heather Loch, Asshole Quarterback Tom and his not-as-terrible twin, Ed, and my locker neighbour and secret crush, Naomi. The girls are under the guys’ arms like they belong there, popular with popular. There’s usually not much interaction between our pair and their group because I’m pretty sure most of the popular kids either don’t know who I am or just hate me for no reason, but today Tom decides to rub in his full-contact plays on the soccer field.

“Nice moves out there, Pussy Willow!” he shouts clear across the lot. It makes me feel the bruise on my back, still fresh, but I’m past the point of being mad about it. Really, Tom’s just an annoying jerk, and that’s all he’ll ever be.

I try to tap into Ivy-like sarcasm and passiveness. “I get it. Because my last name is Willow, and you’re insulting me. That’s really funny. It’s original.”

He yells something back that includes one of Ivy’s favourite swear words, but we disregard it and turn out of the parking lot in the direction of our houses. Ivy states that we’re going to my place because, in her mind, it’s easier to sneak out of a single-parent household. I don’t try to refute it because arguing with Ivy when she has her mind made up is like talking to a brick wall.

[luki-fanfic]

A Kingdom For a Book: Part 2

I’m having way too much fun with this idea...

With one failed attempt under their belt, they end up having lunch in Chinatown before heading back to the hotel to regroup and debrief.  Tsuna and Gokudera end up sitting on one bed, Gokudera nose deep in a laptop, while Yamamoto leans back on another, and Ryohei slumps the wrong way round in a chair.

“I see why the Ninth didn’t want us to come here,” Yamamoto says.  “Do you think the owner knew who we were?”

Tsuna shook his head.  “No, I think he would have treated us that way even if we weren’t Vongola.  There was something about that shop...it just felt wrong.”

Ryohei frowns. “That’s strange to the extreme.  This could be challenging.”

Gokudera is nodding, digging up the research he’d been tinkering with even before they arrived.

“Okay, so that building?  It’s been there since the 1700’s,” he explains. “That’s when Soho was built up for the aristocracy, and the book shop’s been around since then.  Which is pretty damn impressive considering the wealthy all more of less fled mid 1800’s when there was a cholera outbreak and the neighbourhood took a serious dive.  I don’t think there’s a lot of business in London that have been in the same building that long, and if they did, they’re a lot more successful.  At this point, A.Z.Fell & Co should be a historic monument or tourist attraction just due to it’s existence, but it’s only reputation-”

At this he tosses his hands up in the air in disbelief.

“-Is a handful of websites for rare book dealers bemoaning it’s existence!  There’s a 3000 word essay on here that’s just analysing the opening times! I’ve never seen a white noise spot as bad as this outside of the mafia!  It shouldn’t even be possible without mist flames!”

“Are we sure they’re not?” Yamamoto asks, head tilting.  

Tsuna shakes his head.  

“No,” he insists.  “I don’t know what it was about that building, but flames weren’t involved.  Besides, it’s too obvious in its refusal to sell.”

Everyone gives a slow nod at that, and Tsuna bites his lip.

“What we need it witness accounts,” he says.  “We need to know what doesn’t work.”

This quickly results in Gokudera frantically tapping on his laptop again and setting up a video call with Dino in Italy.  When he learns where they are, his face flinches – as if he’s just watched a man belly flop from a high dive.

“Reborn sent you where?” he asks.  “The Ninth can’t possibly have approved that.”

“He wasn’t happy about it,” Tsuna admits.  “But...it’s Reborn.  You don’t really tell him no.”

Dino grimaces.  “I feel for you little bro.  I wish I could help, but I’ve never tried my luck against the devil of Soho.

“The devil of Soho?” the four repeat, and Dino chuckles.

“Oh, it’s kind of an in-joke among people who’ve tried,” he explains.  “The shop is on a crossroad, and someone one suggested you’d probably have to sell your soul in exchange for a book from A.Z. Fell, and it kind of caught on.  Plus, according to Christianity, devils or demons are supposed to be fallen angels, and they guy is called ‘Fell,’ so...”

Tsuna guesses it’s probably funnier for the Italians, because Gokudera’s openly cackling.  Although that said, Ryohei is also grinning, so maybe he’s a fan of the crossroads story.  The boxer does often enjoy American music…

“You might as well give selling your soul a shot though,” Dino continues.  “Because I don’t have the slightest clue what else would work.”

Yamamoto frowns, leaning back in a stretch that almost looks painful.

“If we can’t buy a book, can we just buy out the shop?” he asks Dino, and Gokudera brightens.

“The Baseball Idiot has a point.  I mean, this is Soho, and that shop can’t be making enough to stay in business.  Can’t we just buy the building, or bribe the owner?”

“You really think nobody ever thought of that?” Dino asks, eyebrows raising.  “The Fell family are loaded; they own that building, and they’ve never accepted a single offer.”

“Then we’ll make it a really good one.  Reborn said our credit limit was unlimited for this-”

“Ten years ago Mr. Fell was offered five times what the building was worth and he didn’t even think it over” Dino interrupts.  “And if you think you can scare him out, think again.  People have tried everything from hiking his electric bills to bribing the council to shut him down for health reasons.  I hear the building was even set on fire once.  Nothing sticks, and it always comes back round to whoever tried their luck. An awful lot of enforcers change careers after a run in with A.Z. Fell.”

Dino sounds a little bitter by the end, and Tsuna frowns.

“That sounds a little personal,” he says.  “Did Reborn try and make you go?”

His self proclaimed older brother suddenly finds it very hard to meet his eyes.

“No, but let’s just say I have it on good authority that one of the reasons my family ended up in such dire financial straights is because my grandfather tried to ah...convince Mr. Fell to move into a building owned by my family so he could have regular access to his collection,” Dino says.  “A week later, there’s a freak accident with our accountant’s computer systems that sees 60% of our assets frozen while a record of all our recent financial dealings was sent first class to the local police department.  By the time we cleared it up the money was gone.”

Gokudera does a full body flinch.

“How-”

“I don’t know. And I don’t want to know” Dino tells him.  “Some of those financials weren’t even supposed to have a paper trail.  When my negotiation trial came up, I told Reborn I wasn’t setting foot in that shop.  That I’d try and negotiate peace in Korea before I went to Soho.”

Yamamoto whistles, and Tsuna’s optimism sinks even more.

“Where’d you end up?” Tsuna asks.

“Guinea-Bissau,” Dino says.  “Came out of it with only two bullets wounds too.”

“...Thats...good?” Tsuna offers, frantically trying to remember exactly where on a map that was, and Dino shrugs.

“Better than Xanxus any way” he offers.  “He was lucky to get out intact.”

Yamamoto immediately lights up.  “Oh yeah.  The Ninth said he’d tried.”

“Lets call the Varia, to the extreme!” Ryohei agrees.

“Not sure how useful he’ll be,” Dino warns as they say goodbye.  “His tactics weren’t really compatible with you.”

That’s hardly news to Tsuna, but a list of what definitely wont work is better than no list at all at this point.  Yamamoto is already punching in Squalo’s number.

---

Two minutes later, Tsuna is wondering how far he can be from a video screen without appearing offensive, because Xanxus is glaring like he wants to reach through the computer and strangle Tsuna for the crime of bothering him.  

Which, to be fair is Xanxus’s general mode of being, but Tsuna hasn’t survived this long by getting complacent.  Given his life, it’s not impossible Xanxus has figured out how to do it.  

At least the Varia commander is taking his question seriously – the glare had almost vanished when Yamamoto had explained just where they were.

“Whatever you do, don’t steal one” Xanxus warns when Yamamoto finishes up, and Tsuna finds himself leaning forward.

“You stole one?” he says.  “I thought the requirement was legal purchase.”

“I was getting desperate!” Xanxus snarls, almost defensively.  “Fell-Trash is impossible to reason with.  Not that it did me any good.  Cost me three months, my body weight in pride and a Lightning Guardian.”

At that Tsuna pauses, and glances to the corner of the screen where he can see Xanxus’s guardians, Levi included, not-so-subtly listening in. Xanxus rolls his eyes.

“Parasol-Trash is number 2” he tells him.  “Huge improvement over Belias, I assure you.  Idiot walked out with some old folio under his jacket, figuring we could negotiate after it was in our hands.  To this day, I have no clue what happened to him, but that folio was on display in the window next morning and Fell’s creepy ass boyfriend was wearing Belias’s shades when we walked in.”

“Boyfriend?” Yamamoto asks, and Xanxus chuckles.

“Oh trust me Trash, you’ll know him when you see him.”

In the background Lussuria is fanning himself with a hand, while Squalo is glowering and inching closer to the screen.  Tsuna ignores both of them.

“You didn’t try to find out what happened?” he questions, and Xanxus glares.

“Of course I fucking did!” he snaps.  “Even had the lightning member’s we brought along tried to put on the squeeze, but both of them are mental steel traps.  If anything, threats just amuse them.  Two of Belias’s closest tried physical violence – the boyfriend has this classic car, beautiful piece of machinery; I’ll give him that – smashed out every window and made it clear we were coming back to finish the job.  Car like that can’t be easy or cheap to fix.”

“It didn’t work?” Gokudera asks, and Xanxus shakes his head.

The trash left the hotel to get drinks, next thing I know the shark trash is getting a call from the hospital about them.”

The Varia boss jerks his head back, and Squalo freezes for a second, before slinking up to his boss, not even pretending to be subtle in his approach anymore.

“Were they still alive?” Tsuna asks, not sure if he wants to know.  Xanxus merely glares at Squalo, who reacts as though it pains him to answer.

“Voi, they lived,” he says.  “Looked like they’d been run over by that stupid car a couple hundred times, but they lived.  Not that it mattered to us, both of them up and joined a monastery in New Zealand the second they were released!”

Yamamoto frowns. “New Zealand?  When you abandon your old life to join a monastery, don’t you usually got to somewhere like Tibet or something?”

“Voi, according to them, they picked New Zealand because there aren’t any snakes there,” Squalo snarled.  “Don’t ask me why, never had a problem with them before.”

“Yeah, and that car come morning?” Xanxus adds.  “Perfect. Condition.  After that, I cut my losses while I still had something to lose.”

“It was their own fault for making compensation jokes about the darling’s car!” Lussuria defends from the back, and Xanxus throws a wine glass in his direction.

The Varia side of the call inevitably descends into a brawl, and little advice is coming.  All Tsuna’s managed to gather is, stay legal, screaming is pointless, and don’t threaten his associates or their possessions.

Tsuna silently vows that Gokudera must never enter that building unaccompanied.

Also, before the screen cut off completely, Lussuria popped onto the screen with one final titbit.

“Oh, one more thing.  Don’t flirt with the boyfriend,” he says with Bel half in a headlock and the screen on it’s side.  “Crowley-darling seems to think it’s funny, but it ticks Mr. Fell off no end.  Not sure how he did it, but I got food poisoning whenever I ate out the rest of the time we were there.  Ciao!”

The screen immediately goes black, and as a group, Tsuna, Gokudera and Ryohei all glance in Yamamoto’s direction.  The teen immediately starts pouting.

“Why are you all looking at me?” he whines.  

“Because out of everyone in this room who would think it would be funny, you’re the only one who’d actually try his luck, Baseball Idiot,” Gokudera snaps, and Yamamoto’s lip quirks, point taken.  After so much time hanging around Squalo and Reborn, Yamamoto’s baseline for appropriate behaviour and etiquette will never recover – not that there was ever much to save, if Tsuna’s being entirely honest.  

In the end, after looking at a spreadsheet of the opening hours Gokudera has on hand, they decide to hold off this evening, and try again in the 40 minute window that there should be just before lunch.

Who knows, maybe Mr. Fell will be more agreeable after he’s eaten?

---

One more part, and think it’ll be ready to migrate to AO3...

[apex-academy]

Chapter 3: Down Down Down and the Flames Went Higher (#16)

I don’t get hunted down for the rest of the morning. I’m sure Monochap could get into my study hall if he really wanted to, so I’ll assume it’s all good. Guess the cameras really can’t see that area.

Doesn’t matter. All of that’s done. I could drag Mahavir over to help me, maybe, but the brick didn’t seem any looser than it had been before. Just pushed back a teeny bit. Worthless.

I grab lunch and head back to my dorm room.

I pull out a notebook and seat myself. Time to organize the few theories I might have on our “young master.”

“...”

Maybe I should write in code or something. I doubt the mastermind would play fair if they honestly think I’m onto them.

“But right now I have no idea.”

Besides, if I write that something makes someone suspicious and it changes afterwards, that would tell me who’s watching the cameras, right? What am I hoping for more?

“...I’ll just write small.”

I start by listing out everyone’s names.

Okay. So. The mastermind must have been present during the last trial, if there was any logical reason for that whole crush game thing. That eliminates Kazusuke, Mary Jane, and Kokoro. And unless Aidan is just a spectacular actor, he wouldn’t have changed the rules in a way he obviously couldn’t stand.

But I’m sure anyone who would lock themselves up alongside us would be a decent actor, so that’s not exactly proof.

“The killing game is still happening, though. That’s proof.”

Without the mastermind, Monochap could probably operate normally until another hiccup in the wording of the rules came up. But could he come up with his own motives, too? I won’t know until the next one comes. Or doesn’t.

“Okay... What else have I got?”

The motives themselves? Well, the one with the secrets... Who would have access to that information? Apparently Kanagi’s wouldn’t have been hard to dig up, and I still don’t know what Kokoro’s was. I guess I could check now.

“...”

There’s a lot more I can go over before I resort to that.

Really, the secrets motive ended before we could gauge how much of a threat it was. It may have been mostly bluffing. Hard to link it to anyone if that’s the case.

“...Wait.”

I cross my own name off the list. Not sure why I wrote it in the first place. I really hope I'd know if I was the one pulling the strings here.

“But on that note... Kaichi.”

If his condition is genuine, there’s absolutely no way he could be the young master. Arranging and maintaining something like this is going to take a lot more than whatever you can hang onto in working memory. I guess he could be lying. But to what end? He’s just putting himself in more danger if everyone “knows” he can’t remember, and the whole thing with his leg... Is anyone honestly that self-destructive? And would someone like that kidnap a bunch of other people to destroy?

I don’t know. I’ll put him down as “extremely unlikely.”

”As far as the oxygen poisoning...” 

Is it easy to get hold of pure oxygen? Maybe if you have a medical reason... Aidan or Itsurou, then? Or Kokoro, if she’s getting it for someone else, but we’ve already established it can’t be her. I don’t think there’s much to draw any conclusions from here, either.

What else do we have? Monochap himself? There’s obviously some major technology involved, even if its use is just plain off. So, robotics, computers, programming... Aside from people who might be lying about their talents, that wouldn’t cast much doubt on anyone but Aidan. Possibly Arthur? I’m not sure how much blogging experience would help with advanced program writing. And there’s no telling what Itsurou’s knowledge base covers. Everything to do with killing people, and whatever else he wants to put in stories. I know he types fast, at least. As does Aki.

“Great, that’s solid proof.”

I go ahead and jot down little asterisks by those names. Very vague reasons for suspicion, but if it was obvious, we’d have figured it out by now.

Of course, the mastermind could have had somebody else make Monochap, start to finish.

“What then? I just suspect everyone who has money?”

Ichiriki, Tamiko... Hm. A lot of us could make good money off our talents. The only ones I know don’t have much money to spare are Yuki and Mahavir. It’s hard to imagine someone putting all this together without much funding, unless they just stole everything.

“Tsunyasha, maybe? She could be a thief.”

At any rate, I’ll say Yuki and Mahavir are less suspicious.

I set my pen down and lean back in my chair, letting out a breath. Is this getting me anywhere? All my reasoning is pretty murky. But even if you have no idea what the answer to a test question is, it’s best to use process of elimination, right? Increases your odds when you’re forced to guess.

“I’ve already dropped the number of suspects from sixteen to twelve, or eleven if I get rid of Kaichi. Ten if I do the same for Aidan.”

It’s something, right? Granted, most of that is just because they’re dead... That’s not the kind of reasoning I want more ammunition for.

So if I don’t just want to wait for more of us to kill each other, figuring out the mastermind is pretty much my only option. At least if I don’t want to actively endanger myself. 

And if we can find out the party responsible, we should be able to end the game. Torture the exit combination out of them or something. Call me harsh, but anyone who forces people to kill each other pretty much deserves to die. And if the mastermind dies, the rules can’t be updated, and we’re sure to figure out some other way out of here besides going at the walls. We get out and get help, and it’s game over.

But that’s not likely to happen if I have to guess between ten people. So I’ll—

“H-hello? Am I…? O-okay! Sorry! If everyone could please meet in the gym in a few minutes, that would be great! I-I mean, you don’t really have a choice, but… Um, I’m looking forward to seeing you! Bye!”

The screen shuts back off.

“Really?”

Well, either the next motive is upon us, or I’m about to be called out in front of the whole class. Neither sounds great, but the former has a better chance of me walking back out. And maybe it’ll be a little more to go off of for my theories. 

Only one way to find out.

[BACK] [NEXT]

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THIS IMBALANCE EQUALS OPPORTUNITY

Because painters leave a trail of work behind them, you can opt to be valued directly by users, because users were desperately waiting for what they were, companies would even pay their kids' private school tuitions. Cars aren't the worst thing we make in America. They didn't have to make sacrifices to live there. 99 probability. Benjamin Franklin learned to write by summarizing the points in the essays of Addison and Steele and then trying to reproduce them. But do we have to look at things from someone else's point of view. When we say that one kind of work in the pure, intellectual world of software, is a way for readers to get information and to kill time, a way for readers to get information and to kill time, a lot of misses before the results start to be thrown off. But if you have a US startup called X and you don't have that luxury. Imagine you'd called your company something else.

It was the people they want as employees. They were going to do really well, you can opt to be valued directly by users, because those can now be quite cheap; all money can really buy you is sales and marketing. Because they can't predict the winners in advance? Our hypothesis was that if we don't acknowledge this, we're headed for trouble. What was novel about this software, at the time. Unless you're so big that your reputation precedes you, a marginal domain suggests you're a marginal company. Someone who doesn't know what a programming language, it might be worth trying to decompose them. Better to get a lot of money on a watch you could get a 30% better deal elsewhere? During busy periods, office hours sometimes get long enough that they compress the day, but who want it urgently. While not a sinecure, a position on the corporate ladder was genuinely valuable, because big companies tried not to fire people, and promoted from within based largely on seniority. When the ball comes near them their instinct is to avoid it. There are only two reasons someone might sue you: for money, and by trial and error, that.

And it seems even odder to say that is, to grow about ten percent a year. The unsexy filter is to ask yourself whether in your previous job you ever found yourself saying Why doesn't someone make x? I'm an advocate of whitelists, but more was left to market forces. But on average I'll take Cambridge conversations over New York or LA. Business people are bad at deciding what to do; they'll start to engage in office politics. But if you have a thesis about what everyone else in it is overlooking. If your startup grows big enough, however, is only a beginning. We also thought we'd be able to get a prototype in front of them and refine it based on their reactions. The spammers wouldn't say these things if they didn't sound exciting. It's unpleasant work, but how to work together. In the best case, the papers are just a formality. For example, if you tell everyone your idea, we'll protect it for you.

Even Microsoft probably couldn't manage 500 development projects in-house. There is a point where I'll do without books. The Airbnbs themselves never even saw these emails at the time that Federico da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino, would one day be funding your competitors. Another reason big companies are extremely good at denial. The most common is to grant patents that shouldn't be granted. You must feel really tired. Whatever they are they're probably so far from the top you're basically talking to bankers who've picked up a few new vocabulary words from reading Wired. You launch something, the early adopters try it out, and if it's no good they may never come back.

Where you live should make at most a couple percent difference. But even if the founder's friends were all wrong and the company is doing. And the big hits. They know they want to. It's as relaxing as painting a wall. We'll need to do here is loosen up your own mind, it may not be easy. After all, he did himself, as a sort of time capsule, here's why I don't like the name computer science. Could Americans have nice places to live without undermining the impatient, individualistic spirit that makes us good at software?

This idea is even built into the hardware now: since the 1980s, instruction sets have been designed for compilers rather than human programmers. That suit probably hurt Amazon more than it is police or freedom? Everyone assumes that, like other investors, we run on the manager's schedule. Basically, Apple bumped IBM and then Microsoft stole its wallet. But that is not that high. It seemed like selling out. Someone once said that the world would be a great startup founder but hopeless at thinking of names for your company. Drew Houston did work on a less promising idea before Dropbox: an SAT prep startup. And the social effects lasted too. The same thing will happen if you're running a startup, if you want to be on it or close to those who are. Restaurants with great food seem to prosper no matter what setbacks you encounter.

That's how bad the problem has always been that it's difficult to pick them out. So if you're a maker, think of your own. For some reason this seems to be a big company, this may not be easy. When you find an unmet need of your own. And so they do encourage innovation indirectly, in that they give more power to startups, which is more than they read on the teleprompter. Specific spam features e. So I think people who dwell on it are reading too much into it. Since startups often garbage-collect broken companies and industries, it can be a pretty good deal, even if you merely inherited it. For example, physical attractiveness, fame, political power, economic power, intelligence, social class, and quality of life. And could I have honestly claimed that he was harming his future—that he was learning less by working at ground zero of the microcomputer revolution than he would have if he'd been taking classes back at Harvard? And to engage an opponent inside a castle in hand to hand combat.

Does your product use XML? And it's largely because they got more of the best people, and it's not just nice. After the last talk I gave, one of the more adventurous catalog companies. I'm not sure why—probably some combination of the increasing power of women, the increasing influence of actors as models, and the fact that they control Google, which affects practically everyone. Start by writing software for end users was effectively identical with writing Windows applications. Sure, it can be a great idea for someone else to execute. People like baseball more than poetry, so baseball players make more than poets. I used to want to take risks. In the United States, the CEO of Nike. What's good? It allows you to give an impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it will take some time to see.

[kindcstguardian]

MISC.

NAME. Allison Greyjoy BIRTHDAY. April 2nd. AGE. 18-24. BLOOD TYPE. AB+. LANGUAGES. French, English &&. Spanish. GENDER. Female. SEXUALITY. Heterosexual demiromantic. STATUS. Multiship. OCCUPATION.  Infirmary &&. nursery student. 

VERSES.

Fandomless interactions / Default verse - 17 years old. TAG.「 V • Student ; Allison ／ ˢᵘⁿˢʰⁱⁿᵉ 」    She still lives with her abusive father and attends her last year of school without considering the possibility of leaving him behind. However, she’s thinking in attending university given she has a schoolarship: she is debating whether to choose nursery school teacher or pastry chef.

Fandomless interactions / Default ending - 23 years old. TAG.「 E0 • Living ; Allison ／ ᵏᵉᵉᵖ ᵐᵒᵛⁱⁿᵍ ᶠᵒʳʷᵃʳᵈˢ 」   After receiving the help from the Salvatici household, a trial took place and her father was sent to jail     it was a small step at her point of view  ( her friends found this admirable, though )  and she still feared everything, truth be told. She disliked her weak self and how dependant she was of Cyrel hence why, with the money she earn, bought a small house with a garden.    It’s not like she cut ties with everyone, but balancing her work with her two careers was tough but this time around she wasn’t going to let life pass her by.

Obey me verse - 23 years old. TAG.「 𝐎𝐛𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐞 ; Allison ／ ⁱ ʰᵒᵖᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵘⁿ ʷⁱˡˡ ʳⁱˢᵉ 」 Takes the role of MC, after the events of her default ending.

   Life kept simply targeting her and she simply gave up fighting when she was dragged against her will to The Devildom     instead, she fully accepted her fate as an exchange ( human ) student in RAD. As a devoted believer of God, she tried to understand why of all humans she was chosen and, perhaps, being involved with not-so-holy creatures might have been the root of it, frowning at her friends from hiding their nature around her regardless of being fully aware of what they were.    Sighing heavily at her current situation, she decided to do her best and try to stay in her best behavior. Unlike Earth in which she had allies, here she had no one, and those who claimed being friends, were suspicious. But she is grateful at Diavolo for allowing her to stay in The House of Lamentation, surrounding herself with the Avatar of the Seven Deadly Sins ought to provide some sort of pretend sense of security.

Amour Sucre / My Candy Love - 17 years old. TAG.「 V ♡ MCL ; Allison ／ ᴸᵃˢᵗ ʸᵉᵃʳ···ᴬˡᵐᵒˢᵗ ᵃ ⁿᵉʷ ˢᵗᵃʳᵗ 」    Allison has been attending this institution known as Sweet Amorris since she started first year of highschool and is currently having a good time with the few friendships she managed to make, their presence along studies surely help her mind to stay busy.    She’s happy and grateful for all the experiences but rather insecure about what will happen with her group of friends after this stage of life is over and is terrified about her own future as well given she made it this far with their support albeit she never spoke about her issues.

My Candy Love: University Life / College verse - 21 years old. TAG. 「 V ♡ MCLUL ; Allison ／ ˢᵉᵉ ʷʰⁱᶜʰ ʷᵃʸ ᵗʰᵉ ʷⁱⁿᵈ ʷⁱˡˡ ᵇˡᵒʷ 」    After vanishing for four years from France to England, a lawyer friend of Daniel took her case and made her biological father get in jail under the charges of aggravated physical and mental abuse for sharing bloodline, in short, domestic abuse.    The trial took place around a year and, in the meantime, she studied in college at England to become a nurse—different from her initial goals of turning into an elementary school teacher or pastry chef. All of this was possible because of help from his lawyer who quickly became an older brother figure of sorts.    Still, once Allison returned to France, to cover her own expenses she works in the Novak’s bakery and loves learning how to prepare baking goods and any sweet recipe that Daniel can teach her.

Eldarya / Fantasy verse - 21 years old. TAG. 「 V • Fantasy ; Allison ／ ᴸᵒˢᵗ ⁿʸᵐᵖʰ ᵈᵉˢᶜᵉⁿᵈᵃⁿᵗ 」    Because she chased after the man who stole her bag with money she had along her textbooks for her college classes, Allison stepped on a circle of witches—they appeared to be mere glowing mushrooms but once she found herself falling from the sky onto the water and having to swim her way back to the CQ…she figured out it wasn’t just that.    Now part of the Garde Ombre, she is seen generally in the library with Kero, helping with missions paperwork or walking around with a werewolf friend of hers when she has to do garde related activities.

BNHA verse. - 18 years old. TAG. 「 V ☆ BNHA ; Allison ／ ᵉᵃᶜʰ ˡⁱᶠᵉ ⁱˢ ᵖʳᵉᶜⁱᵒᵘˢ ˢᵒ ˡⁱᵛᵉ ʷⁱᵗʰ ⁿᵒ ʳᵉᵍʳᵉᵗˢ ⁱⁿ ᵗʰⁱˢ ᵒʳ ᵗʰᵉ ᶠᵒˡˡᵒʷⁱⁿᵍ ˡⁱᶠᵉ 」   QUIRK: Provoke and Localize.   HERO NAME: Beita.   CLASS: 3 - B.    Her quirks manifested at the age of only four years old, not under good circumstances...  Truth be told, they activated as soon as she felt sharp glass cutting her skin, a fresh wound across her back made by her very own father     a miserable man who could not cope with the loss of his wife that died at giving birth and blamed their only daughter, for her death. Labelling her as a killer.   The first quirk to activate had been localize which clouded entirely her field vision, only able to see everything in a dark blue hue and spot shapes of people or animals in white alongside a number. The second was... provoke,  that alone caused her father’s violence and abuse to increase at an alarming rate; when grey hues turned to face her father, she could see his shape perfectly in the dark endless abyss that surrounded her until she could deactivate her quirk consciously.    As time passed by, she decided to become a better version of herself. Her quirks initially were intertwined as she simply could not activate them separately, but she didn’t feel discouraged. She practiced every single day, she would spend most of her time in the school’s library and then change into her P.E. uniform to run in the park, activating her quirks in order to get used to them      even if it mean animals or people would chase after her, consumed by a sudden wave of negative emotions that targeted her. It was a reckless move, but it helped her learn which areas were affected and how much people, what livings she could see and the distance.    Allison was fully aware her quirks weren’t flashy or cool, that she was literally bait. That enemies could focus their sole attention and intent to kill to her, and her alone. But even then, that was arlight, a burning flame was set within her heart that yelled she would become a heroine against all odds.    The first step she took right after graduating middle school was to report her father’s domestic abuse. It hurt, it made her feel guilty having no other relative, but he couldn’t keep living like that. She couldn’t keep tolerating his behavior, but until her graduation, she had the faintest hope that he would change. But he didn’t, and now she lived with a friend’s family who took custody of her at the time.    Nowdays, she’s a third year and she didn’t foresee not even in her wildest dreams all the events that were taking place in U.A. and outside of it: the fallen symbol of peace, the sudden raise of villains, how the first years were forced to catch up with that fast non-stopping pace     with her quirk now localizing enemies in a radius of fifty meters and everyday studyng to improve, memorizing faces and gathering date of each student to see them with localize, Allison Greyjoy is aiming to be a heroine who can save those whose cries and pleads of help don’t reach everyone, voice quiet in a fear that she once felt. A stealth type of hero.

Godness verse - Over a thousand of years. TAG. 「 V • Godness ; Allison ／ ᵀᵘʳⁿⁱⁿᵍ ʷⁱˢʰᵉˢ ⁱⁿᵗᵒ ʳᵉᵃˡⁱᵗʸ 」    She’s a small goodness from a forgotten temple given her village is little after a war that killed a majority of the population.    Still, when people do remember her and pay visits, she may ocasionally grant wishes if she can truly feel the one making said wish is asking from the very bottom of their heart.

Utano prince-sama / Idol verse - 19 years old. TAG. 「 V ☆ Idol ; Allison ／ ᵘⁿᵉˣᵖᵉᶜᵗᵉᵈ ᵗᵘʳⁿ ᵒᶠ ᵉᵛᵉⁿᵗˢ, ᴴᵉᵃʳᵗˢʸ 」    Escaping from her former life in an abusive household, Agatha found her unconscious on a couple of trashbags with nasty bruises and took her under her wing. A few months later, legally taking custody of her as her guardian.    Shortly after such fate, she studied in an idol / composer & artist school in which she chose the course of idol without giving to it much thought and once, among other selected ones, got to exchange schools for a month with Saotome Academy in which her decision to become an idol stopped being pointless and started to have a meaning.    Along a couple of friends, they made their own debut under the name ʜᴇᴀʀsᴛʏ: Allison’s an official idol and is often in kid shows and ocasional starring guest in drama or romantic type of series. She will also accept request from radio shows although those don’t happen that often.

Kamigami no Asobi verse / 18 years old. TAG. 「 V • Assistant ; Allison ／ ˢᵒ·ˡⁱᶜ·ⁱ·ᵗᵘᵈᵉ 」    Not entirely aware how she ended surrounded by gods or why she was required to assist Yui in such important request, she couldn’t bring herself to hesitate. If a powerful deity had asked her to help, she must do so.

APH verse. / 17 years old. TAG. 「 V ☆ Another life ; Allison ／ ᵗᵃᵏⁱⁿᵍ ᵃ ˢᵗᵉᵖ ᶠᵒʷᵃʳᵈ」   After yet another night in which her father drank too much and the violence was beyond to what a child could resist, she ran out of the house. It wasn’t strange for her at age seven to find a spot where to sleep in the park, usually a bench or a really good bush not to tempt her luck if it was dark.    Except this time around, someone found her. Initially, she was wary and utterly scared but this man was different     just like her teachers back in school, that kind aura that her father never had. But to bring herself to trust an adult was hard, it was difficult to build a trust in a relationship she never had: her father was only sober during her birthday which was the same day as her mother’s death anniversary.    Regardless, something made her trust this man. Whether it was the utmost shock but real expression of seeing a little child with so many wounds, trembling on a park bench past midnight with no adult companion. He didn’t abruptly approach her, aware of her fear. Kneeling before her and softly speaking, it wasn’t long before she cried.    Nowdays, she currently lives with that very same man who is named Francis Bonnefoy. Thanks to that faithful encounter, she found something she never had: a family, even if it only consisted on a father and herself. 

Osomatsu-san verse / 20 years old. TAG. 「 V • Part-timer ; Allison ／ ᵗʰᵉ ˡᵃⁿᵍᵘᵃᵍᵉ ᵒᶠ ᶠˡᵒʷᵉʳˢ 」    She actually works near the Sutaba Café, in a small flower shop. Given her Japanese is not the best, she is usually seen with an albino female whom translates for her or, when on her own, speaks rather awkwardly.    However, she’s learning through constant interaction with clients and Yummikko herself.

Fandomless interactions / Plotted with starryburglar - 18 years old. TAG.「 V • A new family ; Allison ／ ᵉⁿᵈˡᵉˢˢ ʳᵒᵃᵈ 」     For once in her life, Allison decided to hold onto that hand that was reaching out for her to help. And that’s how she ended living in the road with her new brothers. 

TAGS.

「 Allison Greyjoy ／ ᶠʳᵃᵍⁱˡᵉ ⁱˡˡᵘˢⁱᵒⁿ 」

「 Allison Greyjoy ／ INQUIRY 」

「 Allison Greyjoy ／ MUSINGS 」

「 Allison Greyjoy ／ VISAGE 」

「 Allison Greyjoy ／ MANNERISMS 」

「 Allison Greyjoy ／ ROMANCE 」

「 Allison Greyjoy ／ CRACK 」

✘ ˢᵗᵃʳʳʸᵇᵘʳᵍˡᵃʳ · Nevra ♡（ ʷʰᵉⁿ ʸᵒᵘ ʰᵒˡᵈ ᵐᵉ ⁱ ᶠᵉᵉˡ ˡⁱᵏᵉ ⁱ'ᵐ ⁿᵒ ˡᵒⁿᵍᵉʳ ˡᵒˢᵗ ） 

✘ · Hiccup ♡

[woozletania]

Rocket: A Little Lawyer (mini-fix fic)

Author’s note: “The horrifying bloodshed of Rocket: In The Beginning is averted by something as simple as a reactor tech who happened to be taking legal classes after hours. In this AU of an AU Rocket will never join the Guardians but he might end up as their legal counsel some day.”

A little lawyer By Strega

Paul Foster was the only researcher who showed Project 89P13 the slightest kindness.  To everyone else the little raccoon was a research animal and the fact they were Uplifting the thing to sapience changed nothing. They still conducted the torturous surgeries that crammed the furry thing's little body full of cybernetics and the associated pain and trauma made the raccoon violent and unpredictable. Nor did the Uplift take, was far as anyone but Doctor Foster knew.  He was the only one who as much as suspected that 89P13 was hiding its intellect out of a stubborn refusal to give them what they wanted.

Only Paul would pause by the thing's cage and stroke its fur through the bars. Anyone else risked a finger to 89P13's fangs but it would press its cheek against the bars and let him pet it as long as he liked. No one knew he was sneaking the thing painkillers to blunt the agony when the nerve tech's neural blocks failed, as they often did.  Only Paul cared enough about a mere research animal to try to make its miserable existence a little better and it would wake from a sound sleep at the sound of his footsteps and wait bright-eyed until he played with it or petted it. Those crumbs of human kindness were the only things keeping 89P13 from going utterly mad.

Foster was ultimately responsible for what happened but at the time even he underestimated 89P13.  When it stole a ring from his finger he had no idea it would gnaw and twist it into a lockpick and after that the raccoon had the run of the complex after hours.  The air vents were much too small for an adult human but the raccoon's skinny little body fit well enough and it was soon typing away at unsecured computers and learning at a furious rate.  Things might have ended very badly indeed had it not discovered that the reactor technician was studying for a law degree and had a substantial cache of legal textbooks on his computer. The angry little raccoon read, and learned, and planned, and what would have been a bloody rampage of revenge instead ended in the courts.

It was two weeks after the last implant surgery and a week into Doctor Tschu's forced-learning program that was supposed to turn the thing into a mechanical genius when it happened. Suddenly klaxons blared, red strobes flashed and a chill went down the staff's collective spines as a reactor breach warning sounded. Fusion reactors were among the safest power sources known to man or alien but failures, when they happened, were spectacular and the staff evacuated posthaste while disaster response was summoned. When the tech came appeared with the news the fortified reactor-room door couldn't be opened the staff ran all the faster.

Only Paul Foster turned against the tide of escaping scientists, ignoring the yells of his friends to run to the project holding area. He'd never opened 89P13's cage before and the little raccoon had never been unrestrained in a room with a human but 89P13 knew something bad was happening and climbed willingly into his arms, clinging to his lab coat like a frightened child. Paul ran all the way to the vault-thick outer doors and made it out just as the emergency response team, the police and the press showed up.

"Some sort of reactor incident," Director Randolph was saying to a cop.  "All the maintenance is up to date, we have full documentation -"

"What the hell is that thing?" Floating press cameras homed unerringly in on the half-shaved animal clinging to Paul Foster. Only now did the rest of the staff see 89P13 and the closest ones drew back from what was normally a violent little animal.

"Just a research animal," the Director said, and the cop shrugged.

"No," rasped 89P13, and every eye in the crowd went wide.  Even Paul was astonished, as 89P13 had never spoken before, and half the cameras zoomed in on his thunderstruck face while the other followed the raccoon's as it; turned in his arms to face the cop.  "Not a-ny more."

"Offic-er Grund," it said to the blue-skinned Kree cop, "Under the terms of the Uni-form Sap-i-ence Act, Sec-tion five, par-a-graph three, I req-uest sanc-tu-ary on the basis of in-hu-mane treatment."

Cameras were zoomed in on the cop as well and he knew it. The horrific scars and ugly cybernetic implants protruding from the raccoon's back were plain or all to see. "Under the terms of the Act," the Kree said, his actions dictated by the law no matter his personal opinion, "Sanctuary is granted. Do you have a patron?"

"I nom-i-nate Paul Fos-ter," 89P13 growled, and though he had never imagined himself in this situation Paul responded instantly.

"I accept," he said without hesitation.

"God damn it, Paul," Director Randolph snapped.  "What are you doing?  We've put four and a half million units into that thing."

"Six mil-lion," 89P13 growled.  "You will trans-fer one point five mil-lion units, half to Paul Fos-ter and half to an ac-count I will cr-eate."

"I will do no such thing," the director snapped.

"You will or I will bring suit under the Sap-i-ence Act."

"Director," said Doctor Ernst, and put his hand on Randolph's shoulder.  "If this goes to trial -"

The blood drained from Brenton Randolph's face as he realized the implications. Uplifting an animal only to make it a sex slave, servant or gladiator was such an obvious idea that laws had long since been created to prevent it and public revulsion at horrific cases of the practice made it as unpopular as child abuse. Child molesters didn't fare well in prison and neither did Uplift abusers. Even a brief stint in prison might be unsurvivable.

He had one last, weak argument.  "None of this applies.  This wasn't a sapient until we made it one.  It's a research animal, pure and simple."

"Sec-tion three, par-a-graph nine," 89P13 continued relentlessly.  "'The pro-ven-ance of the sap-i-ent is imm-at-er-ial.  An Up-lift-ed crea-ture is pro-tect-ed by the Act as soon as it can ask for sanc-tu-ary."

Randolph was aware of the many cameras watching every facet of the drama. This would end his career, he knew. Both the horrific nature of the Uplift (which was sure to get out or at least be speculated on based on the scars on 89P13's back) and being publicly blackmailed would tar his reputation forever. But it wasn't just him he had to consider.  If the little monster brought suit it would bring down his entire team, except any it chose not to name - Foster for sure, maybe Chang, since the silent but competent surgery assistant had little interaction with the beast.  But Osterman, Ernst and Kinkaid for sure, Tschu...he couldn't send them to prison by refusing.

"I don't know how you know all this," he said sourly, "But I will transfer the money if you swear not to press charges."

"I so swear," 89P13 said, and a few people in the crowd cheered.  The disaster response team disappeared into the complex, emerging shortly thereafter to report it was a false alarm (whereupon 89P13 smiled smugly) and Officer Grund took Foster and the uplift aside to file sworn statements regarding the Uplift and his new status.

"Well," Paul said, "I guess that's that.  I am out of a job but that's ten years pay.  I think I can scrape by until something else turns up."

"We," 89P13 said, still clinging to his lab coat.  "We will scrape by."

"Until you're ready to stand on your own," Paul said, and 89P13 nodded. "What do you want to do now?"

"Live," said 89P13.  "I have learned to sur-vive, Paul Fos-ter. And to hate.  Teach me to live."

"Would you be adverse to being adopted? You'd have full legal status as a citizen then, not just sanctuary."

"I would like that ve-ry much," 89P13 said, and rested the top of his head beneath Paul's chin as they made their way to the police station. "Ve-ry much."

And that was how Paul Foster suddenly had a son.  A three foot tall, furry, often angry, and still traumatized son, but a son nevertheless. And a son, it turned out, who had a great future in the legal profession.

[codered69er]

Redemption: Ex-DEA Agent Darnell Garcia tells the truth and nothing but the truth By Brandon I. Brooks, Managing Editor Published January 21, 2016 Darnell Garcia (Courtesy Photo) Darnell Garcia, LAPD class of November 1977. (Courtesy Photo) Darnell Garcia has lived a storybook life to say the least. So much so that a Hollywood movie is being scripted based on his life story. Bridal Path Films are in the midst of negotiating with major studios to tell the story of a man many would call nothing short of controversial. Why controversial? Well Darnell Garcia is an ex-Drug Enforcement Agent (DEA) that served 21 years in federal prison. In 1988, at 43 years of age Garcia was charged with drug trafficking, money laundering and providing intelligence information to a fugitive drug dealer. He was released from federal prison in November 2011. Garcia was a former Los Angeles police officer who was recruited by the DEA to become an agent. “Probably the biggest mistake I ever made was leaving LAPD and going there,” Garcia said. “While a DEA agent, after a few years on the job, I was involved in and the principal person who sued the agency for racial discrimination,” Garcia said. “The case ended up matriculating its way up to the 9th circuit court of appeals where they issued a written opinion that’s in the law books today (Garcia v. Lawn 9th Cir. 1985). Basically found that the DEA is discriminatory in threatening agents with transfer to a different city if they didn’t play ball.” After winning the famous 1985 lawsuit, Garcia was reinstated as an agent and given about a $100,000 of past time. He would quickly resign six weeks after the ruling. Little did he know at the time but the DEA had an investigation underway and it was clear Garcia was the man they wanted. Darnell Garcia, LAPD class of November 1977. (Courtesy Photo) Darnell Garcia. (Courtesy Photo) Garcia’s mother and close family and friends felt he was a marked man, as well. “My mother who is originally from Arkansas, she told me, ‘You’re hit, you’re so finished there, you’re a marked man’,” Garcia said. While serving as a DEA agent he was a popular person among peers. Garcia won the international Karate Grand Championship in 1972 and was known for having received a black belt under the tutelage and training of Chuck Norris. That relationship and notoriety led to Garcia playing a role in the cult – classic film “Enter the Dragon” starring Bruce Lee. “I was a big friend of Bruce Lee’s,” said Garcia. He later went to work for Fred Williamson, better known as the “Hammer” and his movie company Po’ Boy Productions. “I did a few film’s with Fred but mainly behind the camera, I did some acting and stunt work…but I don’t think the movie business bit me that much,” said Garcia. “I think the that the high profile worked for me as well as it did against me.” Darnell Garcia (right) throws winning punch to win final match during 1972, International Karate Grand Champion. (Courtesy Photo) In late 1988, John Jackson, Wayne Countryman and Darnell Garcia were indicted for theft of 180 Kilos from a stash house in Pasadena and were set to go to trial. “For one year I was a fugitive, I wasn’t in the country, I was in Europe,” said Garcia. “A year later when I am extradited back from Europe and we have a trial in front of the honorable Judge Terry J. Hatter, Jr. who we thought was going to be extremely fair because he was a (President) Jimmy Carter appointee and he had talked like he was always going to be fair. Come to find out since I didn’t plead guilty and the other two guys plead guilty to testify against me, the case went from John Jackson being a principal drug dealer to him cooperating and it immediately changed to where I was the principal because I was pushing back. All about this time South Central L.A. was racked with Freeway Rick, who Jackson indirectly or directly worked with I do not know that part.” Garcia revealed exclusive evidence and information during his sit-down interview with the Sentinel that he expressed would once and for all redeem his name and paint the proper picture of the so-called Ex-DEA agent from south central who went rogue. Garcia produced a video recording of John Jackson recanting his testimony during the trial that assisted Garcia in being locked up for 21 years. The recording was made in October of 2015 and Garcia owns the copyright. In truly shocking testimony, Jackson can be heard explaining how he lied under oath to save himself and to receive less jail time. In addition to the video recording Garcia provided a signed declaration from not only Jackson but also Jackson’s wife Barbara Jean and Wayne Countryman. Countryman signed the declaration in November 2015. Darnell Garcia, 1972, International Karate Grand Champion. (Courtesy Photo) Darnell Garcia, 1972, International Karate Grand Champion. (Courtesy Photo) “In the DVD (video recording) Jackson finally tells the truth after 21 years,” Garcia shares. “Everything he said at trial, the entire 21 years I lost of my life was all a lie simply because they were going to give him life and his wife was going to go to jail also. I went to prison for 21 years, Jackson did 4 years and Countryman did 3 years,” Garcia said. “Everybody was appalled (that) I got an 80 years sentence. Well there is a tax in America as everybody knows, if you fight and go to trial you are going to get more time than if you plead out and say I am going to take the hit. I wasn’t going to plead out under no circumstance simply because I wasn’t going to plead to something I didn’t do to satisfy to get less time. My mentality was kill me, I am not going to lie to myself.” Barbara Jean Jackson’s written declaration expressed how the government at the time had wire tapped her telephone. She went on the write, “I was not allowed by the U.S. District Court, Judge Terry Hatter, to give testimony in the trial of Darnell Garcia. I believe this taped conversation would have explained to the jury how the Government was coercing my husband. I was threatened and intimidated by the prosecutor in the case with me being sent to jail for along period of time if my husband did not testify against Darnell Garcia. Within the attached taped, I told Darnell Garcia, that everyone accused in the case would be leniency according to the prosecutor if they were to say things against Mr. Garcia.” Garcia made it clear he didn’t contact the Sentinel to sell his life story for fame or notoriety. This was simply about the truth being told. “I am in the business of trying to get some type of redemption for my sons, my grandkids,” he said. “So that (they) can see, ‘Well Papa went to jail for 21 years but he might of only supposedly had to be there a much shorter amount of time.” Garcia was released early in November 2011 after violently appealing to President Obama through the clemency board and the parole board. “God Bless the President and the parole board,” Garcia said. According to Garcia, many of the harsher drug laws that affected minorities are slowly but surely changing. “In 1988 the sentencing reform act was changed and they made this harsh mandatory minimum and it really affected the crack guys a lot…it mainly affected the Brown and Black communities and they are trying to revisit that,” Garcia said. Back row top (left to right): V. Moogen, B. Burbege, D. Garcia and T. Updike, Front row (left to right): J. Natividad , Chuck Norris and P. Johnson. (Courtesy Photo) Back row top (left to right): V. Moogen, B. Burbege, D. Garcia and T. Updike, Front row (left to right): J. Natividad , Chuck Norris and P. Johnson. (Courtesy Photo) Despite it all Garcia notes that things like this, no matter how severe in nature, are a part of the job he signed up for. “People ask me, who is your animosity toward? My animosity is not toward the guys that testified against me. I was an agent I have been a policeman. I have seen it before and I saw it at trial. You don’t realize the real life as an agent or as a law enforcement person. You tell people, ‘I have seen mother’s tell against their son’s I have seen son’s tell against their mother’s,’” Garcia said. Instead, he remains thankful that he made it out despite the obstacles. “Our system is that you cooperate or we will bury you. The only way you can get on the other side of that is you outlive the sentence, which I have done. Thank goodness again to the President properly putting people on the parole board who let me go.” When asked was he innocent of all the crimes accused or did he simply commit some crimes as an agent, Garcia remained honest. “By no means am I saying I am innocent. I am saying that I am innocent of the drug crimes. Garcia notes that his decision to go to court was actually based on his faith in the justice system. “The reason I chose to go to trial is I actually believed the system is designed so you can have your day in court. My day in court I took the stand. I didn’t choose to not take the stand. People said you shouldn’t do it because you open your self up to cross-examination and all the other stuff. I absolutely believed in the system,” Garcia said. “ I grew up here in this city. When I became a policeman. That was very proud for me. I enjoyed being a policeman. I never lied on anybody, I never stole from anybody, and I never took a life, none of that. But to be in federal court and be a federal agent and ask for your day in court, I asked for my day in court because I knew I was going to take the stand and defend myself. I was going to take the stand and say let me tell you what I did do. I did cover for them in the sense that I knew what they were doing and I failed by not telling on them. And now I am in a position to where I see somebody stealing, dealing drugs and I should by the oath I took step up and tell on them. I didn’t, I will live with that. I failed the community in that.” “I had the opportunity at trial, which I chose to take to get on the stand and tell my side of the story and my side of the story was I didn’t do the drugs but I did help them put their money overseas. I did help Countryman put his money in the Cayman Islands because he wouldn’t go to the internal schools we had to learn how to do it him self. I did that. I did take Jackson into a fiduciary in Zurich and introduce him to someone who do what they do in Switzerland is hide money, hide the money. “I had to tell the Sentinel there are a lot of guys stuck prison because Bill Clinton took away habeas petition when he was President. A lot of guys have new evidence that can bring them home, or a 100 to 1 on a drug conviction, crack cocaine giving you a mandatory time where you can have 10 pounds of coke and go home in 5 years. So the habeas petition is the only way these guys are going to get it back. But for a sitting judge, a Black man (Judge Terry Hatter) to sit there and not suspect the system, meaning people who are in court telling, people you have let out while you had them on bail and you caught them again selling drugs and you are still going to go with what they say.” Garcia does, however, feel that his case is a great example of what the justice system could do better. “My condemnation from losing 21 years is the judiciary could have done better by me. They could have just asked all the people who wanted to recant, come into my court room and tell me face to face what you lied about. It’s never too late to save someone’s life

[daughterofdessalines]

Posted by Shaun King

(Most important thing I think I've ever written.)

The State of New York murdered Kalief Browder.

His death is on our hands. It was fully and completely preventable. It happened on our watch. We are all responsible. End of story.

It's not a conservative or liberal thing. It's not a Republican or Democrat thing. It's a New York thing.

Please hear my heart — I love New York. That's why I am calling us out right now. I've been all over the world, but New York City is my favorite city — hands down. I have wanted to live and work here my entire life. Moving to Brooklyn with my wife and five kids and working for the New York Daily News is truly a dream come true for me. I told myself, though, that if I moved here, I would not just do my work and keep my head down, but that I would do everything within my power to help make our city and our state the best it can possibly be.

We failed Kalief Browder and our failure cost this young man his life. We should all be ashamed and I sincerely think the only way we can even begin to atone for what our state did to Kalief is to make sure that we put the right policies and laws in place to absolutely guarantee it never happens again.

For those of you who don't know, Kalief was a kind, sweet soul of a 16-year-old kid. Believed to look like someone who stole a man's backpack, Kalief was arrested. At the time, he sincerely thought that once he told the police that it wasn't him, that he'd be released, they'd maybe apologize, and that that would be the end of the story. I wish that our justice system worked like that for black teens and young men. It doesn't.

They didn't release him. His family, like most families I know, didn't have the money to bail him out, so he was sent to Rikers Island — which is one of the most violent, corrupt, disturbing jails in America. Kalief was jailed alongside grown men and violent offenders and endured abuse from guards and inmates — some of which was captured on video. What Kalief thought would maybe be a day or two turned into weeks, which turned into months, which turned into years.

This young man, without ever being convicted of a crime, spent three painful, poisonous, destructive years in jail. He was beaten, ridiculed and broken down. His body, mind and soul were crushed in that hell hole of a place. Then, with no explanation, the charges were dropped.

Kalief struggled with depression following his release from Rikers. In June 2015, using bed sheets, Kalief hanged himself from the window of his mother's home. The pain was too much to bear. A year and a half later, his mother Venida Browder died "of a broken heart."

Maybe you hear that story and wonder, "how does that mean New York caused Kalief's death?"

Please allow me to explain.

Two states in the country automatically charge 16-year-olds as adults for all crimes, no matter the circumstance. One is North Carolina — which has become something like the Mississippi of our time — and the other is New York. North Carolina didn't surprise me at all, but New York? What an embarrassment.

That is why a coalition of nearly 100 organizations called Raise The Age New York was launched. It is why I am going to throw my whole life into backing them. It is why our governor has endorsed this policy and just made it a part of his official plan for 2017 in his annual State of the State address. We must raise the age of prosecution for crimes to 18 — like 48 other states. Exceptions, of course, could be made for the most violent offenses, but had New York already had this very simply policy in place, it would've likely changed the entire path it sent Kalief down.

That's one basic, reasonable, humane reform that we should all be able to agree on. What I know for sure is that not a single member of our state legislature would ever want to see what happened to Kalief happen to their own sons or daughters. New York — we must raise the age.

That's not all, though. At least two other safety nets should've been in place for Kalief. Even if our state had not yet done what was right and raised the age, New York currently has a speedy-trial crisis. Again, this is not a partisan problem. It's a constitutional problem. If anything, constitution-loving conservatives should be beating down the doors to fight for the fact that in this country the Sixth Amendment of the constitution guarantees us the right to a speedy trial. This is not what Kalief received. His constitutional rights were violated. Nobody, not a single person in this state, particularly not a 16-year-old boy accused of stealing a damn backpack, should spend three years in jail waiting to go to court.

As it turns out, it wasn't that Kalief fell through the cracks. He wasn't an anomaly. Our state has hundreds, maybe thousands of men, women, and children who've been waiting for years to go to trial. This is a full-fledged crisis. Our entire government should come to a halt to fix this problem. In essence, black and Latino New Yorkers, who are the primary people experiencing this injustice, are being treated as enemy combatants — and our jails, if people are not able to face a judge for years on end, are no better than Guantanamo Bay. Being innocent until proven guilty is supposed to be the bedrock of our justice system. It is a foundational principle. Being held for years on end without a conviction is just unacceptable and our state must put in place the policies, systems and staff to ensure this never happens to a single person again. It's an abomination.

But even if New York, for some reason, refused to raise the age, and refused to offer people their constitutional right to a speedy trial, at least one more safety net should've saved Kalief. It is fundamentally unethical that we basically have income requirements determining who stays in jail and who doesn't. We might as well check for credit scores. That Kalief, and tens of thousands of New Yorkers, end up going to jail, and costing our state hundreds of millions of dollars, simply because they could not afford the upfront costs of a fine, is outrageous. With the cost of living in New York City being what it is, and wages for working-class families meaning that folk can hardly get by, living paycheck to paycheck, what we have now is the reality that we have two justice systems — one for the wealthy and one for everyone else. If someone, particular people being arrested for petty or non-violent offenses, can prove that they do not have the funds to pay bail, the response should never be to then send them to Rikers. That's outrageous. Our system does not have to be so cruel and obtuse. Instead, people who cannot afford bail should be sent down a very different path with the appropriate legal aid to ensure they attend their court hearings and have a speedy trial.

Kalief was basically penalized because his family wasn't rich. This is not OK.

Right now, Gov. Cuomo has endorsed the 2017 Criminal Justice Reform Act. I support this bill. It's not perfect, but it's pretty doggone good. I want to see Rikers closed once and for all. This bill doesn't do that, but it includes all of the very reasonable reforms that would've saved Kalief from so much of the pain and misery he experienced. This is not a partisan bill. It is not a Black Lives Matter bill. It is not an anti-cop bill. This is a New York bill that, if anything, will help restore a little more faith and trust in our justice system. This bill makes our state better.

In the age of hyper-partisanship, I believe in my heart that this is one of those rare moments where people from both sides of the aisle can come together and do right by the family of a young man that should still be alive today. Let's do this for Kalief. Let's do this because it's the right thing to do.

http://www.nydailynews.com/…/king-time-new-york-kalief-brow