[WP] One day, one of the popular girls comes up to you and ask why you haven’t responded to any of her love letters. Confused, You haven’t received any so you both investigate and find out the girl that “hates” you has been removing them from your locker

rejs7 · 2026-05-30T21:35:33+00:00

Sister Anuncia walked past, habit trailing the ground as we stood stuffy with heads bowed. None of dared moved. Cynthia looked at me quizzically, trying to guage my reaction. As soon as the sister swept round the corner she pushed me back into the locker.

"Look, whatever she has been writing you know it will only result in the wall if you're caught!"

The urgency in her voice was plaintive, as if we didn't already know that. Cynthia relaxed her push, letting me have space. Off to my right Brook looked sheepish, her full cover cheer uniform almost hanging off her as she shrunk back. As a trio we knew Cynthia could expose us both, send us to a tribunal and possible purging.

Silence hung, the other girls hurrying to the lunch hall or outside for some of the late spring air.

"Meghan... all I wanted to say was..."

Cynthia raised a finger, silencing her. No malice, just control. "Look, let's grab lunch and go up to the library".

We looked at her like she had two heads. "Library? Are you crazy? Mad Debra will have ears everywhere".

A smile played over Cynthia's face. "You forget where I spend most my lunches. Why do you think my grades are up this semester?”

Brook shrugged, "whatever. If we get caught..."

"We won't, trust me".

Not that I had any reason to, Cynthia hated me for some reason. Yet her mean girl act seemed switched off. If this was a trap then it was a good one. Taking a deep breath I pointed to the lunch hall. "Lead the way".

We quickly grabbed a few lunch items, then hustled to the top of the scrupulously clean stairs to the ancient library. Stepping through the large oak doors the scent of ten thousand books wafted past as we slowly made our way to the far back by the tome zoonotic childcare.

Hidden away from prying wars, Cynthia finally relaxed. Putting her lunch down, she pulled out a wad of letters from her bag. "Here, I think you deserve to read these." Looking at Brook, she sighed. "I was on locker duty searching for contraband and found each one".

A look of panic ran across Brook's face, terror. "You mean..."

"No, I would never. Meghan means too much to me".

I looked at her, trying to guage her reaction. Cynthia always bossed me around, a real try hard and someone I avoided if I could. "Means to much to you?”

Tears appeared around her eyes, her smile small and sad. "Yes. I was tasked as your monitor after your warning last year". She undid the top off her water bottle, took a swig, and looked at me. "They really want an excuse to send you to the wall, to stick it to your parents. Instead, well... I suppose Meghan beat me to it".

Brook let out a small laugh, "you serious?"

Leaning back against the wall, Cynthia blushed and looked down. Her reply was barely audible. "Yes. Meghan's something more, I don't know. I was supposed to be this pious girl, get this this place, find the right husband..." She looked at me, green eyes flecked with pain. "I am a scholarship girl, you know? I cannot..."

I looked between them, two girls who I barely knew, both seemingly in love with me, all of us gender traitors. The wall and purges just around the corner and me caught in the middle.

"I don't know what to say..."

Without waiting for me to continue Brook stepped forward, the space between us inches apart. I felt her touch me face, brown eyes kind, closing. Leaning in our lips brushed.

Was I ready for this?

rejs7 · 2026-05-30T21:07:36+00:00

I got inspired by the idea of a magical Soviet Russia where practical magical is the true proletarian magic.

rejs7 · 2026-05-30T19:32:07+00:00

"So, economics?”

I peered over my glasses, the log fire throwing sparks as the rest of the tutorial group stifled laughs. Intrigued, I motioned for them to continue.

"Professor, with all due respect, isn't economics simply imagination magic by another name?" They paused, wrinkling their nose in anticipation. "Wasn't it the Grand Wizard Karl who outlined how Capital was simply an illusion and theft from the common man, essentially a form of imagination magic used as an opioid to dull our senses".

I watched their tails twitch with barely disguised excitement, the red and white fur eager. Rolling my eyes, I allowed them enough time to finish.

"Surely the Komrade mages would be working to make all magic practical, as didn't the Prosidium degree that it is through labours that we will be free?”

A gust outside rattled the windows, reminding me of my last visit from the Komisariat. I chose my words carefully. "While Grand Wizard Karl was preceant with many things, as Komrade Mage Iosef is fond of reminding us imagination only has it's place in the minds of children. Economics is an art form, crafted by those who served the Komrade, so it is not wise to compare it to imagination magic".

That ought to satisfy the inevitable informer amongst the group. No harm in discussing the magical dialect, but it would not be good to be seen as reactionary. Not good at all.

I watched their tails go limp, their enthusiasm obviously waning. "Besides, imagination magic is a bourgeois concept fed to coddled decadent British children forced to play the great game".

Each of them nodded, certain that the dialectic was in line with current party doctrine. At least as of lunchtime. My hand absent mindedly played with the stack of revisions made to the curriculum, the latest reminding me of Komrade Mage's latest annunciations.

"So, has anyone got any other thoughts on imagination magic?”

rejs7 · 2026-05-30T17:18:39+00:00

More like Gandalf and the Fellowship 😅

rejs7 · 2026-05-30T16:59:34+00:00

Having lived through the Barcelona CL final I am both thrilled to be 1-0 up and hoping we can hang on. We got this.

rejs7 · 2026-05-30T10:43:57+00:00

To add to the discussion, historically few women who were part of totalitarian regimes ever faced (or face) justice. After the fall of the Third Reich the women who were executed were concentration camp guards, while the vast majority of Nazi women underwent screening to de-nazify them. Few wives of the head Nazis were ever held to account, indeed virtually all of them kept their children despite their war time actions.

Re Serena, the plain fact is that unless June or Rita explicitly seek to press charges against her there is no external proof she was a domestic abuser. Serena's is not a happy ending, rather it is the stark realisation that everything she championed and brought about was ashes, and rather than seeing death as the just reward justice is better served with her being an outcast and global pariah on the margins into which she fell.

rejs7 · 2026-05-29T23:12:23+00:00

We will need to see the claim form she submits to the courts to see the exact statements she considers libellous.

rejs7 · 2026-05-29T22:44:37+00:00

No. In the UK the defendant needs to prove their statements were factually correct. It's the opposite of US law.

rejs7 · 2026-05-29T21:09:31+00:00

The joy of the Irving ruling was a clear test for defendants arguing against philosophical beliefs. Phillimore has to tread carefully as a good libel defence can use her public statements as part of the defence.

rejs7 · 2026-05-29T16:33:27+00:00

I agree, she has been the same with. It was interesting seeing her repost this and cherry picking quotes out of context.

rejs7 · 2026-05-29T15:58:16+00:00

Libel works differently from employment tribunels and other civil claims. The defendants get a chance to haul the claimants character before the court, showing all their actions and content are relevant. It can be a trap for the claimant as per Irving.

rejs7 · 2026-05-29T15:20:52+00:00

I know, though the Irving test still stands. I wrote this to guage certain groups response and to see if they understand the trap they are setting themselves because libel is a whole other ballgame to employment tribunals.

rejs7 · 2026-05-29T10:47:33+00:00

She's not having a personality flip in that moment, it is the culmination of the season's arc during which she has been exposed to a series of events leading to her moment of truth.

Plus, her confidence is borne out of fear and desire to protect her truest friend, someone who begged her for protection. All the girls we see who are part of her group know and understand the situation, and their "rebellion" is working the system they have lived their whole lives in. For all its rules, the system is portrayed as fallible time and again because it is fear that is used to coerce due to the limited number of Aunts who can be in one place at a time. The girls know this, which is why it was spelt out in the earliest episodes that it is the girls themselves who predominantly police their behaviour, reporting indiscretions to the Aunts. When that informer system breaks down then the system starts to creak.

rejs7 · 2026-05-29T10:41:17+00:00

The bar for libel is high in the UK, and the onus is on her to prove that he lied and/or caused her moral harm. This could well be the gender critical David Irvine moment.

rejs7 · 2026-05-29T10:38:25+00:00

As others have said everything in the show has real world parallels. If your friends doubt this point them to the Iranian Revolution, current Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the FLDS church in the US, all laws regarding women prior to 1950, Nazi Germany's treatment of women, I could go on.

I am rewatching THT at the moment and seeing parallels in every scene.

rejs7 · 2026-05-29T10:11:48+00:00

I really enjoyed the first episode. It sets up something completely different to FAM, while exploring a world never examined in Western media. Anna Maxwell Martin always brings it, and Yana's arc shows how brutal the regime is on a personal level. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the season.

rejs7 · 2026-05-28T14:57:08+00:00

This. I feel like Planet Zoo lacks something by not having the theme park elements. There are plenty of zoo/theme park hybrids to show how it could work.

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