Here are Fingolfin and Fëanor depicted as members of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies at UNC Chapel Hill. I was a member of the Dialectic Society in college.
The Societies, also called DiPhi, consist of two formerly rival parliamentary debate societies who started meeting together as a joint body called the Joint Senate in the 1950's. The Societies were founded in 1795, so happy 230 years to DiPhi! The rivalry was once very bitter and they used to have actual duels in the 1800's. According to oral tradition, the Di's once caught a Phi spying on their meeting and beat him with their canes because all rich white men in the 1800's carried canes apparently. The Societies are more normal nowadays and the rivalry now merely consists of good-natured competition.
The Di color is blue and the Phi color is white, and members are identified by a lapel pin with their society's logo. There is a dress code and male members can be fined for not wearing a tie, but nobody is really clear on the female dress code. I chose to make Fingolfin a Di and Fëanor a Phi because they seem to match the general vibe of each society. The Di motto is " Virtus et Scientia" and the Phi motto is "Virtus, Libertas et Scientia," and yeah, Fëanor, libertas, it tracks.
This is relevant because my work in progress fic is about debate in Tirion.
Ace Attorney Collegiate debate AU since I get no bitches.
Quick disclaimer, my team uses Aff and Neg, and first speaker and second speaker. Get that “government and opposition” shit OUTTA here (jk I love yall too) also I am a Parli debater, and have not done IPDA. So everything I say about it is just second hand I’ve heard from my IPDA teammates.
ALSO ALSO there’s a nonzero chance the really cool Mia Fey cosplayer from PKD last year sees this and if you do hi I think you’re cool. ANYWAYS to the part yall have been waiting for:
Ace Attorney Debate AU pt 1
President: Mia Fey
Vice President: Franziska VonKarma
Parli teams: Mia and Phoenix (until Mia graduates), Klavier and Apollo, Juniper and Athena, Edgeworth and Phoenix, Sebastian and Kay, SOMETIMES Nahyuta and Blackquill.
IPDA: Edgeworth, Nahyuta, Simon, Franziska
Mia: All around all star at most everything. I think her fave style of debate is literally any resolution that begins with “on balance” and prefers to debate in value rounds. The perfect mixture of aggressive yet kind in round, but man is she intimidating. Her OG partner was Diego, but now she competes with Phoenix after he graduated. Has a little sister who comes around to help with “moral support” (Maya comes by to eat all the snacks) First Speaker and has KILLER voters, extremely to the point, and her Framework is so precise it’s almost impossible to get lost.
Phoenix: Came into the debate world and astounded everyone at his skill despite being a total stranger to debate. His coach quickly finds out how cracked Phoenix is at on the spot thinking and sends that boy to be a second speaker. Also prefers value rounds, but especially silly resolutions (Ex. The Ninja Creami isn’t so Dreami, or This House is Bussin.) Really bad at cross. Like, REALLY bad. Has his partner ask all the questions. After Mia graduates, his coach throws him together with Edgeworth and is astounded why they haven’t been competing together earlier. They’re CRACKED at parli and they have basically no weaknesses…. Until they start arguing with one another. His flows look like mine lmao. VERY bad and messy but hey. They do the job. Sometimes.
Edgeworth: IPDA liker. Point and laugh. I fear he’s the embodiment of insufferable debate kid. Name calling in round. Spreading. Uses confusing jargon to throw his opponents off. “Erm, akshully 🤓👆” as a person. The thing is. He’s actually pretty damn good, I hate to admit it. Typically favors fact based rounds the most. He’s doing pretty good at IPDA until mia graduates, and then he gets paired with Phoenix and. He never sees IPDA ever again because it goes so well. He is upset by this but also you can’t be THAT upset winning gold after gold. He’s much more organized than Phoenix in every aspect, so he’s first speaker. His flows are so beautiful I think my coach would cry tears of joy.
Apollo: Please help him. He’s miserable. Don’t get me wrong, he loves debate, he just hates his partner. (Or does he?) but, Apollos fave debate type is policy and loves a good old fashioned debate. Clean, straightforward, perfect. He just… usually has to spend a lot of his time cleaning up after Klaviers fuckups. I am not projecting I am not projecting I am not- Honestly a solid debater, just still a bit green.
Klavier: Klavier, I love you. But. I just don’t think he’s puttin’ his all into it. Very much a speech first person, debate second. First speaker since he’s not as good at thinking on his feet. Doodles on his flows. When it’s time to do voters he lowkey forgot he was supposed to DO VOTERS so he just makes shit up. Apollo is killing himself in his head. He also is stuck with Apollo doing Policy rounds and. He doesn’t know that much about policy. So he makes shit up. Apollo wants to cry. Yet again, if they get their shit together, they can be a very solid and scary team, they just need experience. When they lose a round, Apollo is slightly salty that Klavier always scores high speak points than him.
The rest will be covered in pt 2. I hope this reaches its target audience of like approximately three people including myself
Making friends is difficult, as we all know, but it’s even more difficult for the people who like chaos: those debaters and argumentative types who think making fun of their friends is the next best thing to sliced bread. They’re masters of negging, and quick-witted to boot. For those people, making friends is impossible if they reveal who they are from the get-go.
To fill the white space in the market, a new online social media platform is released and is marketed as the “last stop for intellectuals.” The app is called “Vent” and gathers many people from totally varying ideologies and beliefs, bringing them into a single space and matching them with other users with opposite beliefs to discuss their views. The application has an in-house Wiki that’s always expanding and building with every piece of information and beliefs introduced by users. This is the modern equivalent of the public forums of Ancient Greece -- it’s the new archive for concepts and ideas unlike anything seen before.
TL;DR - This work could go in a few directions:
1) An enemy to lovers fic where Characters A & B meet on the platform and build a relationship.
2) Further separation between conservatives and liberal views makes the platform a cesspool and it serves as the spark for a civil war.
3) The information the platform has absorbed becomes one with other social media algorithms and intensifies everyone’s hyperfixation with social media.
4) Due to its promise of free speech, “Vent” becomes a hunting ground for cults looking for certain types of candidates; Character A signs up for an account with fake beliefs in an attempt to expose them.
(I came up with this au while in debate class so I'm calling it the Debate AU if you don't mind)
Tigerstar absolutely misread everything about Riverclan and fucked up so bad by keeping Stonefur, Mistyfoot Featherpaw, and Stormpaw alive and well and healthy but basically doing everything to Leopardstar that he does to Mistyfoot and Feathertail and Leopardstar in the Misty and Leopard AUs that Stone pulls a Scourge in front of all the clans and everyone looks at Stonefur in terror but Stonefur only has eyes for Leopardstar, who is leaning heavily on Mistyfoot. (Like Leopard is beat down, she's loosing hair, and she has deeply infected scratches on her shoulders.Stone and Misty fucking Hate Tigerstar for what he's done to this cat they've known all their lives.) Stonefur kicks Shadowclan the fuck out of Riverclan territory, Mistyfoot doesn't let Mudfur near Leopardstar (neither does Featherpaw, for that matter. She wasn't abused and she's healthy, but she was traumatized in-Tigerstar had her watch Mudfur abuse Leopardstar and Tigerstar himself told Featherpaw Greystripe thought the same things about her.) Featherpaw won't let any warriors in Leopardstar's den unless she's in there with Leopardstar ---so Featherpaw can protect Leopardstar. The silver furred apprentice curls around her leader, "I'm right here, Leopardstar. Stonefur and Mistyfoot are talking to the other clans and then they'll be back. Stonefur said he'd bring back your favorite." Featherpaw added, purring as she groomed Leopardstar's head. "Stormpaw said he went and got the best trinket for your new den though, and he thinks it's going to be your choice over uncle Stonefur's."
damn anon. thank you. hold on i'm going to engage.
also fair like. i'm. i'm out of the haze and not good at keeping track of au tags so. the only ones i'm really tagging for are the ones i'm like. still thinking about. stone au atm. just didn't want like. u to be. think it was a thing. i'm just tired 100% of the time. anyway.
cw: sexual assault, physical abuse, a few more detailed cws immediately under the cut
cws: parent being involved in sexual assault of child, child sexual abuse (via exposure)
cool. sometimes it's like. i dunno. anyway. sorry i said i'm tired but also very into this.
anyway /nm but also reminder to everyone that i have adhd and would prefer if you included paragraph breaks. obviously i just copy it into a document and add my own but. i appreciate when you save me the step. like i get it y'all've seen me ramble at Length in one paragraph before i just. appreciate it.
okay back on topic.
i'm going to sidestep riverclan related concerns for the sake of "angst good," lmao. riverclan related concerns being if i wasn't tired i could easily come up with a justification i'm just tired and lazy.
but like yeah like. uh. dammit i'm already opening up tpb books left and right. let me just.
"But common sense says there’ll be a battle, Firestar. I don’t need an omen from StarClan to tell me that."
oh my god can cinderpelt like. go and talk to all of the modern medicine cats so that they stop flipping out because starclan isn't answering their texts or whatever.
Remembering the wounded and devastated cats in the WindClan camp the day before, he had expected only a small group to come to Fourtrees. Instead practically every warrior must have been there.
i mean windclan has like five warriors but-
Firestar waved his tail to signal to the two united Clans—LionClan, he thought with a rush of pride. This was his destiny.
this is mostly for jace (assuming u see this) bc it's the whole "importance of lionclan existing" thing i was referring to. didn't bother to pull quotes on my dotc rant, but here u go.
so. point of canon divergence* is:
“Greetings, Tigerstar,” he meowed coolly. “You came, then. Not still looking for those prisoners you lost from RiverClan territory?”
Tigerstar let out a snarl. “You’ll regret that day’s work, Firestar.”
“Try and make me,” Firestar retorted.
* from firestar's pov
bc obviously that didn't happen.
no, what happens is firestar sees -- blackfoot and darkstripe and.
leopardstar.
firestar harbours no affection for riverclan's leader. but. even from a distance, he can see her ribs. he'd be surprised she was standing on her own, if he wasn't processing everything else going on.
he doesn't see this part.
Mistyfoot's tail flicks to Stonefur's shoulder, and he nods. They've only exchanged a few words, only had a brief moment, but they're ready.
Stonefur glances back. Featherpaw and Stormpaw are out of the way. He hopes, if this goes wrong, they have the sense to run. If they had the chance, he would have told them to skirt the edge of TigerClan and try to make it as deep into ThunderClan's territory as they could.
He hopes they have the sense to figure that out for themselves.
Firestar is exposing Tigerstar's plans. RiverClan doesn't react. There's not much they'd be surprised by, Stonefur muses. If Firestar told them Tigerstar killed his own kit, he doesn't think he'd be shocked.
Mistyfoot slips towards the front of the crowd. Leopardstar doesn't know, of course. Stonefur has barely had the chance to say two words to her in the past moon. He slinks around to the space between the Clans.
Firestar finishes his speech. No one says anything. Firestar looks takenaback. He glances towards Leopardstar; Stonefur does too. Mistyfoot is watching him, but she's looking at the ground.
A part of Stonefur wants to say, "That's not all." Because, as he starts to run, preparing to leap at Tigerstar, he wants them to know why. He wants them to know what Tigerstar has done. He wants them to revel in Tigerstar's death.
But he doesn't.
Tigerstar sees him, of course. Stonefur isn't trying to be subtle.
"You," Tigerstar growls.
Say it, Stonefur thinks. Tell them what you've done.
But Tigerstar doesn't.
The actual fight is a blur. He doesn't think he is himself again, until Tigerstar's corpse twitches and stills, and he looks towards Leopardstar. Mistyfoot has inserted herself between Leopardstar and Blackfoot, and Stonefur nods minutely.
It's over now.
the clans, of course, are...shocked. riverclan has no complaints, and while...everyone (more or less) is happy tigerstar is dead, but...for thunderclan and windclan, stonefur just murdered him without direct provocation. and the fact that he killed him nine times? direct violation of a warrior doesn't need to kill.
like. if they Knew, they would think stonefur just. but they don't know.
and riverclan doesn't want to explain and shadowclan doesn't want to explain and no i'm not at this moment figuring out what happens wrt bloodclan and so forth. i just wanted to set that scene.
yeah. no idea what happens next in a lot of places here. but.
everyone goes home.
("Your territory," Stonefur growls.
"Obviously," Blackfoot says.)
mistyfoot takes leopardstar to her den. stonefur tells stormpaw to run to thunderclan and ask for their medicine cat. tells him to say it's urgent and he can't explain here. tells him that if they want to send her with a warrior or two, don't argue. just get her here.
featherpaw stations herself outside leopardstar's den.
stonefur feels like he should say something. he's still covered in tigerstar's blood.
"we're taking this down," he says, "now."
they dismantle the bonehill.
once the process has been started, stonefur lets the rest of the warriors finish, and grooms himself and washes in the river until he's satisfied every trace of blood has been taken care of.
he's about to see her when stormpaw arrives with cinderpelt and...hm. sandstorm.
(cinderpelt was there. she saw leopardstar. she can start to put pieces together.)
stonefur greets them, and featherpaw goes to tell mistyfoot and leopardstar, and the adrenaline is fading, his limbs starting to tremble. when's the last time he got any real sleep?
"Stormpaw said you needed a medicine cat," Cinderpelt says.
"We do."
"Did something happen to Mudfur?"
"He can't do this." Stonefur's tail flicks. "We need someone to look at Leopardstar -- you can use our herbs, of course, whatever you need."
Cinderpelt blinks. She's a young cat, Stonefur thinks, too young to be looking at him like she understands. Maybe it's part of being a medicine cat.
"Right then. Does Leopardstar know I'm coming?"
"Featherpaw is telling her."
and stonefur isn't going to follow cinderpelt into leopardstar's den.
for one, it's crowded enough, and he'd probably just get kicked out. for another, he doesn't know what leopardstar and cinderpelt will talk about, but -- he doesn't want to force himself into it.
cinderpelt stays for a while. sandstorm runs proxy, taking some herbs to her, but then she stays with cinderpelt. stonefur has probably been up for over a day when cinderpelt and sandstorm nod.
"take some prey before you leave," he says. "riverclan won't forget this."
"i went over some things with mistyfoot," cinderpelt says. "always good to have some basic herb knowledge."
cats don't have a direct analogue for kissing, but stonefur could kiss cinderpelt for having the grace to say that without letting on why. it's not like riverclan doesn't know. everyone knows.
but.
it's still appreciated.
As the sun rises, Stonefur stands, facing into Leopardstar's den.
"Can I come in?"
Her eyes are watching him. Even they have been changed: no longer the brilliant gold he remembers, but something brassy and dull.
"Of course."
Featherpaw slips past him, taking his place as sentry. She needs to sleep, Stonefur thinks, but it might be best to wait until she's too exhausted to keep her eyes open. He's not above carrying her back to her den like a kit.
Leopardstar starts to stand.
"Don't," Stonefur says. "It's alright."
He hates that seeing her like this is not foreign to him.
Mistyfoot curls up, her eyes closed, a compromise. Stonefur sinks to the ground. "Can I -- do anything?"
Leopardstar looks at the empty space in her nest. "Would you stay with me?"
"Of course." (Anything.)
yeah. uh. i think like. i dunno. it's not like tigerstar ever showed leopardstar a single ounce of kindness. so. uh. am i using that as an excuse to sidestep angst? no. no i am not. well. not entirely. but Damn leopardstar needs a hug.
that she can initiate and control.
but still. she's desperately deprived of positive human contact and as someone who cried once because someone put their hand on my shoulder and i hadn't touched another human being in like six months. i think she needs it.
ohh boy yeah. i think y'all know me well enough to know where i'd go with that angle.
so let me turn my attention to featherpaw. i started answering this ask like an hour ago. anon i love you.
featherpaw has. uh. she's got a Lot of problems. as you can probably understand.
i'd say let's start at the top, but i'm not sure where that is, so let's start with her relationship to stormpaw, because i think that should get fucked up. i think...you know how stormpaw says, "i won't let him kill us"? and. yeah.
but there's never One Moment here and stormpaw realizes way too late and featherpaw feels like...you know like. everyone who is supposed to help her is failing her. she can't really blame leopardstar, and mistyfoot clearly feels bad, and stonefur like. idk what he was doing but she's solidly neutral on him.
could tigerstar try to fuck all of that up? of course he could. do i want to write featherpaw and stonefur arguing about leopardstar? i've already written a lot of something blindingly similar, so not at the moment.
anyway. the relationship i will freely fuck with is stormpaw. i think not because of anything specific, i think tigerstar just gets in her head and she looks like her mother (something tigerstar brings up) and stormpaw takes after their father and he keeps acting like everything is normal and.
at the end of the day, there's this gulf between them that he keeps stepping into.
so yeah. not to mention greystripe. like. fuck.
"Featherpaw!" Greystripe waves his tail at his daughter, and she flinches.
oh hey i hit the grammar cut off again. let me. i learned how to do this okay i'm going to insert some kind of dummy image or something to reset the counter.
there it's a link to my tumblr but i've got grammar checking again xd
moving on.
featherpaw doesn't want to talk to greystripe. it's not Strictly that she thinks what tigerstar said was true (although she's not sure it isn't), but that. just looking at him sets off a loop in her head.
uh. does anyone explain this to greystripe? no. because the cats who could are:
leopardstar (doesn't want to talk about it)
mudfur (doesn't want to talk about it)
mistyfoot (but only by inference, and doesn't consider explaining things to greystripe a priority)
featherpaw (doesn't want to talk about it and doesn't want to talk to greystripe)
so yeah. no. he's in the Dark.
one of the first priorities is building leopardstar a new den. and decorating it. that's part of building a den i just wanted to clarify and.
featherpaw takes it seriously. because. you know. beauty begets beauty.
she doesn't want...stormpaw is ready to jump straight into sharing a den with old apprentice friend dawnpaw. maybe they never stopped.
but featherpaw? doesn't feel safe there. (doesn't feel safe anywhere.)
especially as she's getting older and tigerstar certainly implied and-
she's not sleeping very well.
mistyfoot and stonefur are trying to help her but they're not therapists! they don't know what to do! featherpaw clearly is dealing with shit but how do they help her??? they have no idea!!! how would they?
in a very strange inverse of canon, leopardstar and featherpaw develop a close relationship. leopardstar feels like she failed to protect featherpaw. featherpaw just. doesn't know. she doesn't know what she feels or thinks or knows and like: leopardstar doesn't. she doesn't need to explain herself to leopardstar.
she's in a big sister role to the kits, i think.
uh. yeah. featherpaw. she is not taking any of this well.
sooner or later greystripe corners her (because he doesn't know) and she's having a panic attack and leopardstar is like "you are never allowed to talk to her ever again" and greystripe is like "what the fuck did i do" and someone (mistyfoot?) finally explains.
uh. what else.
stonefur + leopardstar + featherpaw cuddle pile? leopardstar is in the centre. she feels kind of weird about that because she can tell featherpaw is like. going through this whole. uh. whats the. fuck.
like. featherpaw feels like she needs to protect her and leopardstar doesn't really want to encourage that but on the otherhand it's kind of nice that featherpaw is right here because tigerstar 100% used to threaten her to leopardstar and-
yeah.
uh.
i started writing two hours ago so i'm just going to post.
this is inspired by @owlsantuary‘s post i was a congressional debater in hs so here u go
sokka is captain of his school's debate team; he joined as a freshman bc he was like "a club that lets me expound on my opinions for five minutes straight? yes plz" and was good enough that he made captain as a sophomore when the previous one graduated
- the idea of "politicking" is really important in congressional bc it's how you get people to support your bills if you wrote them, or if you have a really good argument and want that bill to be higher on the docket (bc sometimes you run out of time)
- sokka absolutely OWNS at this bc he's that guy that everyone wants to be friends with and half the people he talks to don't even realize that he has an agenda
- he also makes actual friends with the people from rival schools bc that's just what he's like
- his assertiveness sometimes gets him into sticky situations bc ppl get offended by him cutting them off during question time, but it's usually bc theyre trying to run out the clock and he is NOT having that
- i always led tongue twister exercises at the start of every competition to get our voices warmed up and im imagining sokka and his team SHOUTING the "betty bought a bit of butter" one in the middle of the hallway and getting weird looks (if you haven't heard of it look it up it's HARD)
- he always gets full points for pathos (yes that's a real thing) bc he'll tell jokes abt his teacher dads or his sister but then he'll turn around and make his dumb joke into a big-picture argument about the value of education or something; sometimes it backfires though bc he makes a joke at the wrong time
- i think he’d struggle with arguing for opinions he doesn’t agree with…bc he has CONVICTIONS and is basically physically incapable of arguing against like. a climate change bill or something
- this means that he sometimes scores low bc he only argues what he agrees with
- zuko is research captain for his team, which happens to be no. 1 rivals with sokka's school
- he is the master of the rebuttal bc he loves nothing more than tearing holes in people's arguments
- he isn't the best at being adaptible if the debate takes a turn away from what he predicted/researched for, and he does have problems with looking down at his notes WAY too much (youre allowed notes but youre meant to make as much eye contact as possible), but he always shows up with exorbitant numbers of sources and flattens people with FACTS
- when he's not speaking he is the most awkward of the awkwards and he despises politicking bc it makes him feel self-conscious; this means that he honestly doesn't have v many friends besides his own team but at the same time everyone Knows Of him and the "oh SHIT zuko sozin is in my debate room im so screwed" whispers are real
- he's better at arguing whichever side of the debate is available instead of only sticking with his own beliefs, which allows him to rack up a ridiculous amount of points bc he's speaking every ten minutes
- he's also at least co-author, if not singular author, of like 80% of the bills his school submits for debate (which also contributes to everyone knowing his name)
- sokka and zuko had definitely heard of each other before they actually meet; sokka bc of zuko's Reputation (tm) and zuko bc ofc he'd know of the captain of their biggest rival
- also bc they're always getting called up at the awards ceremonies for best speaker awards (and best bill for zuko)
- they do NOT understand what's so great about the other...but also are Looking Respectfully bc debate requires formal wear and ofc zuko shows up in a tailored three-piece suit and sokka's probably wearing his dad's old suit but makes it look good anyway
- this changes the first time they're assigned to the same room and sokka bounds up to zuko to introduce himself and immediately stutters bc o god cute boy cuter up close and zuko thinks this is precious but also has no idea what to say and blurts out something dumb and then they both sit down and look Determinedly Away
- zuko is very surprised when he finds sokka is actually kinda funny and even tho he thinks that him only arguing one side is disadvantageous he's also v impressed by the strength of it (and oh my god a good family relationship what???)
- sokka is floored by zuko bc his speeches literally sound like poetry with sources (insert that line from rwrb that's like "'see attached bibliography' is the single sexiest thing youve said to me")
- and THEN...they both get to go to the captains' lunches which is where they really sit and talk for the first time over pizza and sodas and maybe exchange numbers :0
- there is definitely "fraternization with the enemy" talk from their teams mostly joking but also sokka youre CAPTAIN you cant do that hes ZUKO SOZIN PLS STOP (spoiler: he doesnt care)
- it takes ages and ages for them to progress past being friends but they always sit together at captains' lunches and sometimes their teams....sit close at awards...and they trash talk and flirt across the bleacher dividers......
- it all comes to a head at the state competition which both teams make it to and they're both REAL nervous the night before and run into each other in the hotel lobby and it turns into them sitting up half the night talking and theyre both exhausted on competition day but it's ok bc coffee is a thing
- and then oh shit....sokka qualifies for nationals and zuko doesn't but someone else on his team does......and everyone expects zuko to be mad about it and sure he's disappointed but also hes just so happy for sokka that it kinda overshadows it
- they sneak away from the celebration dinner that both teams just Happened to be at the same restaurant for (actually, the sponsor squad aka iroh, hakoda, and piandao definitely planned this) and make out outside and tell their friends to fuck off when they come looking for them; they've both been dancing around this forever they deserve it
High school AU where during debate season Logan’s teammate will drug him up on crofters so he becomes the ultimate debater, using any strategy nescisary. Problem is when he crashes from the sugar he forgets everything from the high. Shenanigans ensue. Explanation in the tags
@suca-loca thank you for creating this with me babe my rival. I had a total blast with it.
I honestly have too many WIPs to be healthy, but I’m very excited about this Snowbaz fic... American!AU, high school debate team partners. Penny and Agatha are Very Done With This Shit™ and have decided to rely on a time-tested, perfectly dramatic matchmaking technique:
“Oh my god,” Agatha whispers incredulously. “Holy fuck.”
We’ve hooked up her phone to the classroom’s projector. My neck was getting tired looking over her shoulder the entire time, waiting for Baz to succumb to suck up his ego with one of Simon’s reusable, environmentally-friendly bendy straws and just fucking say something interesting. This is much more comfortable.
And that? The thing that’s on the screen? Now that’s interesting.
I’m pretty sure I’m crying. “Screenshot that shit,” I say, choked up. “Screenshot it.”
