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[terriblepurpose]

[There's a short pause where Paul processes on his end of the conversation, sifting through layers of translation to identify the joke being made -

- and his laugh is bright and easy when it comes, pleased to be startled. His hands, visible on the camera's feed, still while he works through it. One disappears out of frame as he reaches for a seasoning shaker.

He doesn't know if Ochako realizes how much information she shares so readily. It's nothing excessive, nothing that would inconvenience or embarrass anyone, but it's vivid and detailed. Maybe that's how people are when they don't live in the shadow of perpetual distrust. It still feels like a privilege to be treated as someone she can speak to like this.]

I like that.

[It's a hammy joke, and that's the charm. Paul files it away for future use.]

So these - 'royalty' type people - they went to high school with you.

[He's learned (some of) his lesson about assumptions, and is going to ask Midoriya privately later if Todoroki is accorded privileges of rank in a codified way. It sounds more informal than that, but you never know.]

So everyone is treated the same when it comes to education, depending on what courses they take...that is different. In my universe, they'd have been tutored at home. There are some public schoolhouses on Caladan, but most people come up in the trades of their families...which it sounds like is the case for some of you, like Todoroki-kun.

I don't know if he counts as long lost, exactly. Although he does strike me as someone who might end up getting lost.

[floatsaway]

[Perhaps it's because the information is so broad and mostly already known in her world that it just...can't really be used to weaponize against her. She's giving details about people who aren't here, either, and again isn't exactly useful in most cases. Besides, Paul is her very best friend's boyfriend - if Deku trusts him, then by default Ochako does. Maybe getting some points taken off here and there for certain...scenes he's made (mostly on Johnny Lawrence's part, of because Trench is, quite literally, a FUCKING NIGHTMARE), but overall she likes talking to him. And when it's the topic of her friends and how incredible they are, well...

She can gush for hours and hours.]

Mm, that's right. UA is technically a public high school that anyone can apply to and has the ability to join, but some get in on recommendations, like Momo-chan did, and others through taking the entrance exam, like Deku, me, and Bakugou did. I-I-I'm still amazed that I...I-I placed third overall in the entrance exam's top scorers...

[Honestly, most, if not all her rescue points were because she saved Deku at the end with Zero Gravity SMACK, but everything else feels so weird. To be put that high...it's a little jarring. In a good way.]

Pffft!! [Ochako snorts, laughing into her hand and snickering as her shoulders shake. Yeah...yeah...that definitely would be the case.] Mm, doing things in my world is a little bit different. Sure people often follow the steps of their families - like someone would the family business most of the time - but not everyone. Most people just want to do good for other people. That's usually the base of what people want when thy become a Hero, after all.

A True Hero.

[Because, as she's come to learn through her own two eyes, and the experience life and tragedy and war put her through...there's people that wanted this line of work for selfish reasons. Power, fame, money to use for themselves... People are still people, at their core, no matter what title they're given.]

[terriblepurpose]

[It's a good thing that Ochako can't see the disbelief on Paul's face when she seems so surprised about her high placement in the entrance exam's rankings. She might take it the wrong way; knowing the self-esteem of most teenagers, he'd almost put money on it, if anyone were going to take him up on that bet. It seems only natural to him that the highest achievers would cluster together, Ochako included - but then again, he doesn't know what the competition looked like. Perhaps it didn't favour her skills, and so the result is more surprising.

(An assumption he may be forgiven for: he believes all of Midoriya's friends are, of course, exceptional.

Including those who might get exceptionally lost, a joke whose success Paul tucks away like a golden feather in his cap.)]

It sounds...freer. [He admits, turning off the heat to the stove and setting the seasoned pan on a cold burner.] Being able to choose what you want to do with yourself, the path that suits you best when it comes to doing good in the universe.

[Much like Trench, although he knows that her world comes equipped with structures that don't exist here. Trench is one of the most truly free places he's even been in, for better or for worse. But it does make him think, and almost idly, he adds:]

I think I'd be a little frightened by that. What if I chose the wrong one?

You're lucky you scored so high on your exam. At least you know you chose the right path for you already.