As someone who is getting more involved in my local Jewish advocacy scene- something I’ve found frustrating is that some Jews that identify with the Democratic Party have trouble hearing good things that Republican lawmakers have done for Jews (and yes, they do exist).
Sometimes they even get angry at local Jewish organizations for publicly saying thank you to a specific politician or public official.
Please don’t get angry at your fellow Jews that are organizing to make things better for all of us because the Republican law maker listened to us and the Democrat didn’t. We promise we asked both of them.
We can’t control who decides to come to our aid, and we are not in a position to be picky.
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@magician-of-esperance asked for Nathaniel and Adrien. Thanks for the request! This was a fun one. ^.^
Summary: A chance encounter makes Nathaniel realize that maybe he misjudged Adrien.
Read it on AO3: Nathaniel and Adrien: Redemption
There was about half an hour before school started, so Nathaniel decided to take advantage of the opportunity to work on his comic.
He took a seat on one of the benches along the inner wall of the courtyard and opened his sketchbook.
He was trying to come up with a new villain design, and he’d decided to use Majora’s Wrath from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for inspiration. He’d add unique details and make the end result his own, but the character design of Majora’s Wrath offered a good base to start from.
He took out the reference picture he’d printed and smoothed it, setting it down on the blank page facing the page where he was working so that he could easily look back and forth between his sketch and the reference.
He’d been at it for about fifteen minutes when he was rudely interrupted.
“Do you like Legend of Zelda?”
Nathaniel looked up into the tentatively smiling face of Adrien Agreste.
Internally, he cursed.
Adrien was the last person Nathaniel wanted to deal with so soon after being summarily rejected by Marinette for the ditzy, blonde jock slash literal supermodel.
“Yes,” Nathaniel responded curtly, hoping that Adrien would get the message that his intrusion wasn’t welcome and move on.
Instead, Adrien’s face lit up, and he took a seat beside Nathaniel. “Me too!”
Nathaniel had to try hard to contain a grimace.
“What’s your favourite game?” Adrien asked enthusiastically.
“Probably Wind Waker or Breath of the Wild,” Nathaniel muttered.
Adrien nodded in approval at Nathaniel’s choices. “Those were both really cool. I loved all the innovations. The graphics in Wind Waker were especially amazing.”
A brief silence settled between them, and Nathaniel realized that Adrien was (eagerly) waiting for Nathaniel to ask him which game he liked best.
Nathaniel almost didn’t, but then he thought of what Marinette and Ladybug would think of him being rude to the new kid who was obviously trying hard to make friends.
Internally, Nathaniel sighed.
“Which ones are your favourites?” He tried not to sound as put out as he felt.
Adrien nearly started to bounce in his seat in his joy at successfully carrying on a conversation.
“I actually like some of the older games best,” he informed Nathaniel exuberantly. “Oracle of Seasons and Link’s Awakening kept me busy for entire days at a time. My absolute favourite, though, is Majora’s Mask.”
Nathaniel nodded. “It’s a good game. …What did you like about it?”
An embarrassed blush spread across Adrien’s cheeks, and he looked down at his feet as he twisted the right one back and forth in a nervous gesture.
“The structure, actually. I really like the three-day cycle that repeats again and again.”
Nathaniel quirked an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”
Adrien shrugged. “It’s comforting. It’s safe inside the time loop. If you mess up, you can start over, and, if you miss something, you can just get it on the next go round.”
Adrien’s teeth sank into his bottom lip, and he hesitantly looked up to meet Nathaniel’s gaze. “I’m not sure if people know this, but my mom disappeared a couple months ago.”
Nathaniel’s eyes went wide because he had not known that, and how on earth did Adrien act so normal and happy and nice with that kind of rubbish going on in his life?
“After it became clear that she wasn’t coming back right away and we weren’t going to find her, I sort of started playing video games a lot and really immersing myself in their worlds. Majora’s Mask was one of my favourites because the time loop is so stable.”
Adrien winced, averting his eyes again. “This is probably really weird. It was just really nice to have something that made sense. Every day in the game proceeds according to the script, and I knew where I could find any of the characters at any given time on any given day. It was nice to have that kind of certainty.”
Tentatively, Adrien looked back at Nathaniel (who was sure his face was a mixture of horror and stupefaction).
“Sorry. I’m not sure if that makes any sense.” Adrien forced a smile—the same smile as usual, only Nathaniel saw it for what it was now—and rubbed at the back of his neck.
“No. It’s okay,” Nathaniel rushed to assure. “It makes sense that you’d want something you could rely on when your world was flipped on its head like that.”
Adrien’s fake smile softly melted into something more genuine. “Oh, good. Sorry. I didn’t have friends besides Chloé before I started coming here, so I’m not very good at having conversations yet. Nino says I say weird things sometimes, so I’m trying to work on that.”
Nathaniel nodded, trying to ignore the way his cheeks were heating up along with the realization that Adrien was kind of adorable.
“I don’t think you’re weird or anything,” Nathaniel insisted. “Most of the time people think I’m the weird one.”
Adrien’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Really? I’ve always thought you were cool.”
Oh my God. Adrien Agreste thought Nathaniel was cool.
Nathaniel’s voice squeaked a little as he suggested, “Maybe you could come over sometime and we could play video games.”
Adrien’s face fell. “My father doesn’t let me leave the house, so I don’t think I can do that. I’d like to, though. Do you maybe play any games online?”
Nathaniel nodded. “Yeah. A couple. We could definitely find something to play together.”
“Awesome!” Adrien’s whole face glowed with joy.
The bell rang, and Nino came over to walk to class with Adrien, effectively ending the conversation.
“It was nice talking to you,” Adrien remarked in parting with a smile and a wave.
“Yeah,” Nathaniel agreed, surprised to find that he genuinely meant it.
Maybe Adrien wasn’t so bad after all.
In fact, Nathaniel could kind of see why Marinette liked him.
“But more and more I’ve realized I have a need to try and find out why before making a judgement call on people’s beliefs.
Why are people acting the way they are? What is it about their circumstance? What is it about their financial background? What is it about their personal and professional standing that is making them think, act, say things that I might not agree with?
I think answering that why-question is so important because it contextualizes and allows us to understand, even if we don’t agree, that there are far more substantial and profound reasons behind people’s ideologies than just having a bad take on something.”
It’s so easy to jump to conclusions. It’s so much harder to really understand where other people are coming from when we disagree. But it’s the basis of finding common ground.
A recent Quinnipiac poll came out that had me shaking and scratching my head, while muttering under my breath interspersing the muttering with … “Hmmmm …” and “Say WHAT???”
Now, before I get into the poll results that I find either confusing or unconscionable, let me pose a question for you … and this is one I would like you to ask of some of your friends who support the Republican Party …
If I…
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