#Charles wings are based on a turtle dove

[wyrm-mlm]

Supernatural AU: Erik is hunting down the demon that killed his wife while trying to protect his teen daughter, Nina, who is suddenly developing strange abilities such as talking with animals. An Angel who calls himself Charles has taken a shine to them both. All this is happening while some other pair of hunters are trying to stop the apocalypse or something.

[w1ld-wr1t3r]

Who else is included in the wings AU so far? (so like other drivers, OCs, etc)

and if one can hide their wings, are there people without them? How are they treated?

Anon, you need to know that when I saw this ask, I immediately started chanting "LORE DUMP! LORE DUMP!" in my head. This serves as your warning.

First and foremost, let's go through the current cast of this AU. I've got a working list of every driver I've assigned a wing color to so far, though whether everyone actually gets mentioned is going to depend on how my plans unfold. A quick note that the only character I'm not including in this list is Martijn, since his wings are meant to be a surprise. For now, this list consists of only F1 drivers and a couple F1-adjacent characters. The cast may expand as I assign more wing colors.

Some have wings based on real birds, others don't. Those with real-bird wings have the species name listed, you can Google them if you're curious about their appearance.

Lando - pure white Max - Loggerhead shrike (the most aggressive shrike species in the world; they can take down prey significantly larger than themselves. And they have a penchant for impalement) Alex - European bee-eater George - Turtle dove Lewis - Bateleur (an African eagle species) Nico R. - polished silver Esteban - Maghreb magpie (pretty similar to the Eurasian magpie) Pierre - layered shades of cloud gray Logan - Florida scrub jay (a blue-and-white corvid native to Florida) Oscar - dusky orange ombre Carlos - earthy chocolate brown Charles - scarlet red, with white lacing on primaries Mark W. - Black kite (this is one of those birds from Australia that starts fires to force prey out into the open) Daniel - Whistling kite (also a fire-starting Australian bird. Why does Australia have THREE SPECIES of pyromaniac birds?!) Jack - Galah (a kind of cockatoo) Liam - Kea (a parrot from New Zealand)

Now, for hiding one's wings - I will admit that maybe what I've come up with isn't the most elegant solution. But once I got the idea of some wing colors being seen as "bad," I immediately thought, "what if someone chose to always keep their wings hidden to avoid being judged? How would they do that?" Then once I latched onto the idea, I came up with the plot of the first fic and realized that I needed to find a solution if I wanted to write this story. So then I figured, if I'm making a world where humans have wings, then I've already given up some of this story's realism, so it shouldn't be too unbelievable if I come up with a fantastical way to hide wings, too.

In this AU, there are special pendants people can wear that, when they come in contact with their skin, will hide someone's wings from view. They are still there, and will reappear when the pendant is removed, but as long as the pendant is on, the wings are not visible, the person can't use their wings for flight or any other purpose, nothing will interact physically with their wings, and it's essentially like they were never there at all. No one knows exactly how the pendants work, but the leading theory is that the ore they're made of emits some sort of energy or has some other property that interacts with the physical structure of wings, leading to them essentially disappearing. Scientists have studied this phenomenon for years and still haven't figured out what exactly is going on here (they also don't know why humans are the only primates who somehow ended up with wings. Basically, there are a lot of mysteries there. I don't currently plan to delve into the scientific or mystical aspects of this, since the main cast are all F1 drivers and not, like, professional scientists whose job is to research this, though who knows, maybe it'll still be touched on at some point)

People typically hide their wings for social or cultural norms, for tasks that would be easier to perform without them, or if they just want to walk around without their weight for a little bit. Sometimes, though, they're hidden for personal reasons. It's considered rude to just blatantly ask someone why their wings are hidden, especially during a first meeting, though if you've known someone for a while, it's generally expected that you'll show your wings to them eventually, and it's considered odd if you don't. Choosing to hide them completely from everyone it very unusual, and is often a tricky subject for others to navigate, as the reasons for doing so are usually very personal. Some people who choose to do this hide their wings because they're embarrassed or ashamed about their appearance, be that due to their color or species, or due to injury or damage. Others choose to hide them because they're disabled and can only barely fly, or are completely unable to.

There are sometimes people who are born without the ability to fly, though it's far more more common for them to have disabled wings rather than no wings at all. Being flightless is considered a major disability, and while they can still lead perfectly normal lives, there will be some activities that they simply can't do. The treatment of flightless/wingless people varies a lot throughout the world, with most places giving them aid or assistance in areas that they might struggle in (namely alternative travel options for those who can't fly on their own, or therapy or enrichment services for those who struggle psychologically with it), though some places are a lot better than others, and some people do look on them with judgment or scorn. There are some places where the flightless are seen as second-class citizens no matter what they do, and some people see them as "lesser" than them, while other look at them with pity. It really varies from area to area, though I'm happy to say that in this day and age, more and more people are treating the flightless with kindness, acceptance, and equality. Some flightless people, if they have any wings, will wear them with quiet strength, but many choose to just use pendants to hide them, since they can't be used anyway.

For those with minor disabilities who want to try and use their wings as normally as possible, there are options for prosthetics. Depending on their purpose, some prosthetics, such as a few fake feathers or a false joint, can allow a person to fly, while others, like a large swathe of fake feathers or an entire fake section of a limb, can fix a wing's physical appearance but won't allow for flight. (fake feathers usually aren't as effective as the real thing, so a few fake feathers on your wing might not compromise your flight, but a lot will. Some people decide that having wings that at least appear whole is worth it, while others don't bother. And obviously, if you need a full-on metal-and-plastic appendage, then you aren't gonna be getting off the ground with that) Prosthetics aren't affected by wing pendants, so they have to be removed before using a pendant and reattached afterwards.

Okay, I think that's the end of the lore dump. The first fic is well underway and the AU is going very strong, so feel free to keep sending in questions!