#racial discrimination cw

[nola-lee]

(WARNING: The following content contains explicit descriptions of violence, torture, and death. Please read with caution!)

[oh mother, tell your children not to do what I have done;  spend your lives in sin & misery in the house of the rising sun]

@outterridge @aurormax @katiethxrne

Under any other circumstances wherein Dona’s safety was in question, Lee would have stuck by her side like spice on rice. But as it was, mambo had him by the throat against a wall in her quarters.

“You will stick to your instructions this time, Boy…” Taitu commanded in harsh Haitian Creole. She squeezed Lee’s neck, her sharp nails leaving marks on his dark skin. He could hear commotion coming from outside Taitu’s closed door. “…do not let your foolish need to protect the Lost Daughter interfere with our carefully wrought plans again. You have your orders. You will not stray. Everything that is happening is part of a higher directive that is under my control. Disappoint me again, and it will cost you. And know that I will be watching.”

And just when Lee thought he was on the verge of passing out, the Queen disappeared amidst a black cloud of smoke. Lee slumped a half-foot down the wall, rasping for breath. He could hear Dona calling for him, and her voice is the only thing that gave him strength to push himself up and into the chaos of the raid.

Issac was readying her office, an attempt to give their lackey some level of competence in the more delicate aspects of being in I&S. Thus Athena Howell was behind the vanguard that made yet another push into the darker dealings of the wizarding underworld. There were signals the bulk of the fight was completed from her aurors, all hard faced men and women who tucked their chins at the snap of her cape. It was dramatic, but a necessary show of flamboyance; Reese respected her occasional bout of showmanship in the field if only to remind everyone that real power laid in crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s.

The fight was still raging, the world tilting on its axis while glares of spells shot past her ear and whizzed into the idle protection barrier Athena had conjured the moment a toe went across the threshold. Her soldiers were holding their own, and then some, smashing through the Daughters’ little hidey-hole, making a game from how they chased them through the halls. Sending them scurrying like so many rats that oft sniveled in corners before snakes and hawks, Athena snapped her wand out into her palm, sending an electrical current through one, vomit covering the tips of her shoes and she took the time to smear it on the downed person’s cheek before moving onward.

There were screams, yes of course there were screams; Athena had learned to parse through each kind—rage, horror, agony, defeat, and best of all pain. She knew the screams of pain, had made a game of learning what sorts of whimpers and cries could exit a person’s mouth, just how much they could take.

The one that cracked through the house was one of panic, of agony, of someone who’d made a kill for the first time and was watching the lifeforce slip away, completely unprepared for how it could split someone’s soul into so many pieces Humpty Dumpty was unable to fix you. Athena never wondered if fixing a soul was viable, all that mattered was the sanctity of innocence and peace. Her soul was well worth the cost of children happy in Hogwarts.

"The tablecloth. Lee, get me the—Come on, the tablecloth!" Dona's voice became more panicked as she felt the blood seep into her jeans, her knees slipping on the floor.

She could've summoned it herself, if her hands weren't already multitasking. Her wand, slick with blood, was clumsily waving along a deep cut, practicing a stitching spell she'd only ever observed. Her other hand was pouring dittany liberally over the auror's entire body.

"Lee! Get me the tablecloth!" She looked up from her work this time, eyes widening as she took in the situation more broadly.

The secondhand shop that hid Lee’s family’s home was filled with aurors—more than two, was it three or four? Her vision was blurry without her glasses. But Lee was hidden from sight, or had he apparated away? The sounds alone were terrifying, spells shot off walls, shouting, boxes thrown aside.

"Help me..." she begged aloud, shaking hands desperately trying to go back to work. Someone, anyone—she needed help. "...she's not breathing, help me, please.”

Lee clutched the tablecloth inside a shaking fist, and crouched beside his soleil awkwardly. He tried not to focus on the cops in strange robes who were tearing the secondhand shop apart with little regard and certainly no respect for its occupants or their business. He tried not to focus on anything but Dona—her big brown eyes, pleading and scared. Lee glanced helplessly at the raven-haired woman convulsing on the floor and said, “Do ya…do ya know who she is?”

He was moving so slowly, no urgency at all—or was it just because Dona’s own hands were doing so many things at once? Her wand, shifting up and down, desperately trying to coax muscles back together. Throwing aside the empty dittany bottle, then ripping the tablecloth out of Lee’s grasp to press it over the auror’s stomach, wrapping it tight, trying to stop anything else from spilling out. It was the first—the only—time Lee’s presence hadn’t comforted her.

“She’s an auror...” Dona’s voice came out in a gasp as she tied the tablecloth tighter, then went back to her wandwork, “...im-important, I think, her uniform…” But no, Dona didn’t know her personally.

She leaned across the auror’s body and slipped where she knelt, the auror’s warm blood soaking her thigh. It was getting increasingly difficult to see, between her lack of glasses and the hot tears gathering in her eyes, “I—” She gasped, wet hands reaching up to wipe her tears, smearing the red in the creases, “I don’t know what to do—”

Dona looked around, head whipping about, “I-Is anyone here? M-Mags might… She would know, I—” And when Dona turned back around, to try something, anything—as soon as her hand put the slightest touch on the auror—it disintegrated underneath her.

That was what broke her.

Auror. That was the same strange word Lee had heard that friendly white boy boulanje from the witch fruit market use to describe cops who used magic. And Lee absolutely held no love in his heart for law enforcement. But as he heard Dona slipping in blood spilled from the body of a stranger, as he watched that body disintegrate into grey-black soot beneath their hands and their knees, as he heard the light of his life wailing in terror and anguish beside him—Boy LII wished he’d been born for a fate that did not demand such sacrifices, that did not reap such a cost of needless destruction and despair.

He tried to offer words that might calm Dona, but what could he say? That despite her wondering desperately if Mags could have helped, Lee recognized this magic as being woven from the Lady Magdeleine’s own hand—and a merciful annihilation, at that—by Mags’ and all of the Daughters’ own standards? No—Dona’s pure heart was not yet conditioned to the darkness of the magic she was soon to inherit that she would find much comfort in that.

Athena snapped open the door where the wails came from and stopped.

Ashworth was a thorn in Reese’s side, her Commander oft bitched about her comrade and ex-schoolmate. She was a pillar in the Auror Department, a mentor, and a powerful tool in the necessary violence for the protection of the Wizarding World.

But as Athena watched Ashworth slowly morph into a pile of dust, she could only think about three things: 1. Cmdr. Reese was going to become the Auror Department Head 2. They needed a new C&F Division Commander 3. She was about to become very familiar with the ways this girl screamed.

“In the name of the Ministry, put your hands in the air or I will cut them off.”

There was no time for consolatory words. Because before Lee or Dona could even think clearly enough to lift themselves up from the death muck that encompassed and incriminated them, a woman with black eyes that smoldered like brimstone was threatening them if they did not surrender.

Dona was terrified of getting in trouble. She remembered the exact number of times she’d gotten a detention—each of them because the class was being punished as a whole. She remembered each and every time she’d been sent to her room by her Mom, the loneliness in her room made her cry and cry until Catelyn relented.

And now, with a Ministry auror pointing a wand at her, threatening to cut her hands off, Dona was petrified. Her hands visibly shook as she raised them in the air, one hand still clutching her wand.

And despite Taitu’s grave warning, Lee’s protective instincts kicked in; he threw himself in front of Dona, bellowing, “Pa oze manyen li you—!” But before he could finish the statement of defiance and foolish valiance, he felt an electrical current like a bolt of lightning scorch through his body and knock him out cold.

“Lee, no—!” Dona shrieked, but she barely had time to try to stop him from making any sudden moves before he dropped to the ground, muscles seizing up and spasming. She went to move forward to check him over, but put her hands back up, looking at the auror. “I’m—I’m a Healer, I can… Let me… Please, I—”

But before she could do anything, her hands were pulled behind her back, her wand clattering to the ground next to her. She pulled against the sudden bondage instinctively, sending a shock of pain all the way up her arms. And Dona, who cried when she got a paper cut, screamed. Her shoulders hunched up to her ears and she struggled to stay balanced on her knees. Her scream died down to a low wail, tears sliding down her cheeks.

“Oh, shut up,” came a low, male voice from behind her, before a hand was placed on her shoulder, and she was apparated away.

***

[ Interrogation Room, Ministry of Magic ]

They were in the same room. Which was a mercy and a torture, by itself. Her hands were bound behind a chair, and Dona learned very quickly that moving or straining would only mean more pain. But she could move her head, turning to watch over Lee, who was still slumped in his chair.

“He needs a Healer,” Dona sniffed, blinking back more tears, “Please, he’s… He’s recently had surgery, he—”

“Spare me,” the auror spat, and Dona looked up, genuinely puzzled. “We know perfectly well how your kind treat people like him.”

“I—” The statement was so obtuse that Dona was truly lost for words, stretching up her shoulder to wipe her cheek. She sniffed again, genuinely trying to stop snotty crying in front of so many people. “C-Can you take the handcuffs off? We didn’t do anything wrong, I was trying to help.”

Athena had heard that plea before, a dozen or so times. They never meant to hurt anyone, they were only trying to help, they had no idea the backlash that they’d caused, surely this wasn’t against the law. Couldn’t she just let them go? They were kids, they were parents, they were grandparents, they were just following orders. Athena reached out with a hand and grabbed the front of the girl’s shirt, dragging her a short way up.

“You just killed an Auror Commander,” she hissed, “We’ve made meat for less than what you’ve done. You’ll be lucky if we decide to just toss you in Azkaban once her subordinates find out what has happened.” Athena could hear it now, the roars from the basement brats beneath her feet, their lab rats coming out of the pipes and crawling the steps to find Ashworth was simply dust in the wind. Scrambling for new leadership, and all of Ashworth’s little ‘projects’ doubtlessly stalking Athena’s crime scene looking for someplace to put their rage.

Athena disliked Ashworth, but she respected the loyalty the old Slytherin had drawn from her subordinates. She knew where to strike the ground and find oil, digging up potential like a miner, shining them to a polish and kept leashed to the Department. The Commanders were all Beast Masters, and even Athena loved her own. So as she stared at the sniveling girl groveling with reddening cheeks, she smiled.

“I think you’re lucky it’s me. There is going to be blood fertilizing the ground soon, once we find your little rat friends, and it will be all your fault. Their deaths around your neck—a noose, an albatross...”

Dona’s shoulders hunched up as she was lifted, eyes wide and terrified. She shook like a leaf, shaking her head desperately at the accusations, genuinely too afraid to talk, to deny it. The experience had been traumatizing enough; although a healer-in-training, the auror’s death was the first patient she hadn’t been able to save, and she wore the woman’s blood all over her. Dona could feel it drying into her jeans, her skin, her hands still tied behind the chair, straining against the wood as she was lifted. Tears continued to slide down her cheeks at the memory of it, and she sniffed, trying to stop long enough just to explain.

Athena let her grip drop and began to shuck off her peacoat; it was decorated with tools of the trade—knives, hooks, ropes, lighter fluid, especially brewed potions for her skill in these rooms. Janitors were often paid overtime for cleaning up Athena’s space, and Athena tipped them for the citrus scent they sprayed afterwards. She enjoyed it, kept her head clear and focused.

“...But you can stop some of the bloodshed, we can take them quietly. Oh they’ll be harmed, you can’t stop that. But you can stop a massacre.” Athena shucked off her white outershirt, folding it up neatly and laying it upon the equally meticulously folded peacoat. Both left in a far corner box, leaving Athena in her heavy black boots, wool pants and thin black undershirt.

Dona was still shaking her head when she was put back down, still trying to force words out as the auror continued on her spiel, but it was like her sobs were choking her, holding onto her tongue. The best she could manage was a stuttered, “I-I d-didn’t—”

Athena twirled her wand and mindlessly shot a cutting spell at the girl, watching blood ooze from her arm, slicing through layers of fabric. It was a shallow stinging cut. Her cries were stirring the boy, and that wouldn’t do.

Dona gasped at the sudden stinging sensation, crying out and turning to look at her arm. She was in genuine shock that the auror had hurt her, having always been under the impression that the Ministry’s job was to keep her safe. She’d never been in trouble, she voted, she submitted her census papers and carried her work ID in her back pocket. She blinked, shrinking back in her chair as the auror suddenly approached, flinching down into herself, frozen in fear as her pale finger caressed Dona’s cheek.

Like an older sister Athena patted the girl’s head, gentle and soft, shushing her softly, “We don’t want to wake him, do we, pretty girl? He needs his rest, it’s just you and me together…” Athena reached out to drag a single nail down the curve of the girl’s cheek. “...now, will you be a good girl and stay quiet for me? Tell me what I need and make sure he—” She pushed her cheek, still endowed with baby fat to the shallowly breathing boy, “—gets some well needed attention?”

Dona trembled, turning to look at Lee when she was forced to do so. She was immediately worried for him—she’d lost track of time, sure, but she was sure it wasn’t normal or healthy for Lee to be unconscious for so long, especially following his intense period of hospitalization, treatments and surgeries. He was so fragile. So breakable—

But Athena didn’t wait for an answer as she stuck the wand up against the girl’s knee and whispered a breaking charm. The girl’s answered shriek made her tsk.

Dona cried out, letting out a shattering wail at the bursting sensation in her knee. The proximity of the wand tip to her knee split her patella clean in two, and her knee immediately collapsed in on itself, shattered. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she strained against her restraints to lean forward, desperately trying to free herself—to do anything to stop the pain.

“Oh you’re weak, that’s cute. Even our trainees can get through a little breaking charm. C’mon stop crying, we’re just getting started.”

“Why are you doing this?” Dona managed to wail through her cries, shoulders shaking as she begged the auror for help, “I didn’t kill her—I didn’t, I didn’t—I didn’t have enough dittany and I—” That was all she could manage before her sobs won out again.

Athena hummed jauntily as she sat back down on her ass, the picture of relaxation, letting her hands hang over the peaks of her knees. In this way the girl was looking down at her, it was an old trick, such a position usually signaled defeat but instead Athena displayed an arrogant grace.

“Why am I doing this?”

Were she a weaker auror, she might’ve balked, might’ve had some flashbacks to her youth, found err in her ways. She might’ve felt sympathy or even had evoked some guilt. Might’ve cried a bit and stared at her bloodied palms in disgust for the person she had become. Might’ve been horrified and begging for mercy from a benevolent God who’d turn her away at the pearly gates.

Fuck God, and benevolence, and forgiveness too. Hell was on Earth and the aurors were there to keep it tamed. Athena was born to bring justice, by any means necessary.

“Because this is what I am—” Athena gestured to the room around her, “—a peacekeeper, keeping children safe in their beds, their parents from worrying, students safe at Hogwarts and professors snuggly drinking tea in the mornings as they grade.”

Athena was good at grand speeches, had made rousing ones when she was a prefect for Slytherin House, keeping order in her House in the wake of the Second Wizarding War and ending fights before they began. Spilled blood on the stones of Hogwarts still haunted her dreams, the screams of students dying and being torn apart, the inaction of those around her...

It made her sick.

“I am incapable of inaction.” Athena stood, dusting herself off. “So we’re going to try this again, baby Healer—why are you wrapped up with such dark magic that it’s making the veterans of the Wars nervous? Why are you so entrenched in them that you’ve taken one of them as a lover?” Athena reached out to tilt his head to the side, and walked around her, fingers running over her hair, blood flaking off while she tutted. “Merlin this is gross—yeck, blegh…” with a spin of her wand the blood was gone, the viscus and the muck. “…and I can play nice—I just need answers.”

Athena tapped his shoulder, sending a jolt of electricity with the tips of her fingers.

“Wakey wakey, Loverboy! I need to know what you and your lot were up to— quickly, otherwise I’m liable to break every bone in your girl's body. Then I’ll take your ears so you can’t even hear her screams, hmm?”

She watched his eyes slide open, watched his mouth move and open. With the accuracy of a sniper she fired off a curse with her wand. “Tumidus lingua veritatis,” she hissed, watching as his hands jerked to cover his mouth, the girl shrieking, “Oh both of you relax, it’s just a curse. Swelling Truth. The more you lie, your tongue swells, as do your gums and throat. Until eventually you close your own airways and asphyxiate. So let's play a game—I ask you a question boy, and if you don’t answer I break something in her body. If you lie, you get to hang yourself. It’s a win-win! For me! I’m brilliant.”

Athena sat back on the floor, criss-cross applesauce, perching a chin on her fist with a sharklike grin, and regarding the panicking captives. “Tell me nothing but the truth and you get out unscathed, you get Healers and auror protection, then walk your lives along unharmed. Tell me lies and get broken down, then tossed to the wolves of the Forensics & Crime. They’ll have fun with you I’m sure, and they won’t be as nice as me about it.”

***

[ Interrogation Room, some time later ]

All efforts to communicate the catch-22 situation in which Lee was caught to the sadistic woman who held them captive were a fool’s errand. The intricate wards that were rooted into the very core of his mind, his memories, since infancy held strong; they allowed Lee to say nothing that would damn the Daughters, nor give the faintest hint as to any of their secrets, no matter how fiercely he strained against them as Lee was forced to watch the horrors the woman wrought upon Dona, slowly and meticulously draining all the fight and the will from her battered body (not to mention a dangerous amount of blood).

And oh, did she try to turn her wrath on him. What appeared to Athena to be brute determination from Lee in employing his so-called right to remain silent—even as he pleaded through choking sobs for the girl to be spared—only drove the auror to push more brutally, and ruthlessly, and viciously upon the pair of captives. 

But it was no use; the Daughters, of course, had ample preparations in place to safeguard their secrets from being extracted via torture. Like magical anesthesia, Lee could feel every bit of physical pain that Athena inflicted upon him, and yet his body doggedly failed to react—aside from coating Lee in a thick sheen of feverish sweat, and the way he trembled head to toe as he wrestled with his will, and all that he was unable to do. 

And soon enough, his inability to be forthcoming caused his throat, his tongue, his lips and mouth and cheeks to swell up so much that he could barely move his head, barely breathe but through tiny passageways still available to his nose. Even getting enough air to audibly groan was veering toward impossible. His head slumped to one side and Lee looked at nothing but Dona, beaten and broken and still so beautiful, and his vision started to blur; he was losing Oxygen…

Dona’s reaction to her senseless torture remained consistent: insisting throughout tearful hysterics that she didn’t know anything. Even the curdled screams that she wailed in response to each and every bit of pain took a while to dull—but they did dull, eventually, until she’d been reduced to being unresponsive save for whimpering, her nostrils and lips and chin caked with blood from the broken nose Athena had given her when the interrogation was interrupted by a younger, male auror demanding a routine blood test. It was the restraints, not strength, that were even keeping the girl sitting upright.

And perhaps the Auror Captain never would have admitted defeat—perhaps she would have wrung the young captives body and soul between unrelenting fists until their lives were drained out.

Perhaps, but not today—the male auror who was Athena’s clear inferior hustled back into the room and said, “Christ, Howell—did you bother to check that brat’s background at all? Her blood test came back—she’s pure. Some American family with their noses up some powerful peoples’ asses—Reese is pissed. She’s headed here now so I hope for your sake you have a fuckin’ good excuse—“

His warning was cut short when the Commander—now the acting interim head of the entire Auror Department—threw open the door.

Seren Reese watched with a curled lip as Athena shook in place, there was blood on her cheek, and her hair was matted to her skull from sweat. There was a feverish sheen in the woman’s eyes, and Seren admired how her little monster coiled away from the doorway when it tapped gently against the wall. It was nice to know that her subordinates still feared her.

Her two aurors parted, heads bowed, eyes to the floor, letting her view the damage Howell had wrought. It was impressive, and obvious she needed to let Athena get off in the interrogation rooms more often if this was the result.

“You’re quite sloppy today, Athena...” Seren grabbed the boy's head and turned it side to side, admiring his swollen skin and throat. No doubt he’d been suffering this whole time, his skin and blood stank of wards to high heaven. “...you’ve gone and let your bloodlust cloud you Athena, perhaps you will need supplementary lessons?”

“Yes Commander,” Pierce was grinning beside Howell, always happy to watch someone else get dressed down, seeing as he was the usual thorn in her side when it came to getting wand- or fist-happy. “I apologize.”

“Apologize to her.” She gestured to the pureblooded girl strapped to the chair, blooded and mangled.

Athena’s jaw worked once, then twice. She bowed her head when Seren raised an eyebrow, “I apologize for my heavy-handed... methods....miss.” Each word a grind from her throat.

“Oh that’s not an apology...” Seren held her hand out, and Athena went willingly into her palm, head bowed as Seren studied her favorite little protege, the one she’d trained since exiting Hogwarts in the fickle arts of their station. Her hands glided through sweat matted hair, fingers curling as she gathered the strands into her hair, before slamming Athena forward, yanking her head forward and forcing the girl into a bow. Seren’s nails dug into Athena’s scalp pulling up hair and blood. “Grovel, girl—you have fucked up, haven’t you?”

“Yes.” Athena whimpered, skin on the back of her neck red.

“You ought to just die right here, for failing your station so miserably, right?” She shook Athena like a bad puppy, and the girl nodded.

“Yes ma’am...” Athena cowed as Seren shoved the girl to the ground. Isaac was behind her, lips pulled into a joyful grin. “...I don’t deserve this station, I have failed you miserably.”

“Get out.” Athena stumbled out the door, slamming right into Cadmus, who grabbed the woman by her jaw and dragged her down the hallway. “Pierce—” The boy snapped into place. “—Get me a healer, and the proper legal documents.” With flick of her wand she transfigured one of Athena’s buttons into a metal stool that she perched on, spreading her broad patterned skirts daintily around her knees and tucking her ankles behind.

“Miss Outterridge,” she began with a purr, “I do so apologize for the mauling one of my trigger-happy aurors has given you. I know we likely will not escape the wrath of your family, for good reason, but we must have answers...” Pierce came rushing in with a Healer, who got to work on the damage. “...you have found yourself in a pickle with a terrorist magical cell of insurgents that we’ve been tracking for a long time. Their misdeeds and evil have sunk their claws into this world, and the aurors are tasked with ripping them apart. It’s unfortunate that you’ve come under their sway...” Slowly, the visage of the girl was put back together. “...and now you’ve been cited as an accomplice to one of my colleague’s deaths—a very high ranking member of the Auror Corps, one not so easily replaced and who will be vehemently missed...” Seren kept the emotion out of her voice, though her stomach churned and throat tightened at the thought of Ashworth having escaped this earth before her, and not beside Seren. Were they not meant to die with hands wrapped around each other's necks? “...so you must understand where we are coming from. Our job is dangerous, and you’ve become involved with insurgents with more blood on their hands than you may realize.”

Dona’s eyes were glassy as she stared ahead, her tears long dried, her screams long silenced. She felt like she wasn’t quite inside of her own body, mangled as it was. She didn’t know when it had happened, and it wouldn’t matter anyway; Dona had no sense of time passing as she sat there, staring.

She had no reaction to another auror entering the room, then another. She barely managed to lift her head to listen to the new auror’s spiel, most of it going in one ear and out the other. She spoke of terrorism? This auror didn’t know the fucking meaning of it.

They’d been sitting at home, lounging around on Lee’s bed when it happened. Dona had jumped up and scampered out, wand drawn, to see what the commotion was—and that’s when she had found the cursed Commander. Lee hadn’t followed.

He’d taken his sweet time to help her—time that might have prevented the dark-haired auror from dying, and then when they were arrested, he’d kept his lips shut. He didn’t answer a single question. Not when they broke her legs. Not when curses spasmed down her body, forcing broken limbs to move. Not even when they’d cut off her fucking finger.

Voodoo would always be misunderstood, mambo had taught. As long as colonialists existed, so too would their oppression. They saw the magic that Lee and his family did, and didn’t understand it, so they called it dangerous, called it terrorism. And then they tortured her for it. Terrorists.

Dona was barely aware of her body being healed, muscle and bone knitting itself together. It was easier to breathe when her nose was in one piece.

The decision was made, at some point, to move Dona to a different room where she could be healed easier—somewhere she wasn’t bound to a chair, at least. She tried to mumble a protest, but words didn’t come out, her arms weakly pushed against the Healer before the choice was made for her, and Dona found herself being propped up, stumbling out of the room.

She swallowed the potions they gave her, snatched the salve jars out of their hands to rub it in herself. When they eventually located her wand, which had been confiscated from Lee’s family home, she used it to heal herself, too.

And then she was left sitting there in an Auror Infirmary, glaring at the wall in front of her. She would have walked straight out if the same cocky-looking auror wasn’t standing just outside the door, and if she knew Lee had a reliable way home. Not that Dona particularly wanted to wait for him, she just wanted to be able to look him in the face when she screamed at him for his silence.

[ Meanwhile, in the Interrogation Room... ]

Despite looking well-close to dead where he sat, when the girl was removed from the room, the boy stirred.

Seren studied him, like a cockroach in a jar, and mused, “You’re under some complex spellwork, boy—it’d be impressive if it weren’t so primitive. I’m sure I could break these little wards and curses…” Childsplay, though Ashworth would have done it quicker and painlessly. She’d always been better with curse-breaking, and curse-making, damn her.

But Ashworth wasn’t here, and Seren knew pain came with growth. With a flick of her wand she lifted the curse Athena had put on him, one of the girl’s own creation, and gestured.

“Speak boy, defend your terrorist cell, and perhaps we’ll allow an easier release alongside her.”

Just when Lee was about to surrender to the darkness that was creeping along the edges of his vision, to stop fighting and just let himself be pulled beneath the surface to be buried in the muck by Death’s muddy vines, those sweet ghastly tendrils that had tethered Boy LII to the Depths Below since birth—

Once more, just as before, he was spared; for attestations of some other realm that were not for a worthless boy to know, Death released Lee and he buoyed back to the shoal of life.

His features shrunk back to their proper shape and he gasped air back into his lungs, choking on it as if he’d been drowned. A new woman, with gray hair, was sitting before him. Lee thrashed, his eyes flashing like a spooked horse; where was Dona? What had they done to her?

“Please, ya gotta listen to me—the other one didn’t understand, wouldn’t listen, it’s—Dona doesn’t know anything, you’ve got to let us go, you got no idea what’s comin’ if ya keep…”

He convulsed for a moment, as if some unseen force was passing through his body. Then he sat upright, his back straightening unnaturally given the injuries he’d incurred. He looked straight at the gray-haired woman and his pupils blew all the way out, until his eyes were clouded over entirely with a sinister, unreflective black.

The boy blinked his stygian eyes. Blood trickled slowly down from one nostril and then the other, trailing over the edges of his lips, but he paid it no heed as he spoke in a flat, chilling tone that sounded entirely unlike the voice he’d spoken with but a moment ago: “By Tituba's will, and the Spirit of her Daughters, vengeance will come. She will flood acid rain on your prejudice, burn your lies over the fire with which you burned us, and boil your posterity in blood. This we swear, to be followed through in this world and those to come.”

[ Back in the Infirmary... ]

Eventually, the door to the infirmary swung open, and a blonde woman marched in, looking frantic. Dona averted her gaze, looking to the ground. The woman’s auror-issue boots were grimy, muddy. She’d been at the house when it was raided. Her gaze flicked up to glare at the older woman.

“My name is Major Max Squint. I am so, so sorry for what happened—it was never meant to be like that...” the woman said, pulling up a chair. She sat on it, putting her elbows on her knees, “...this Operation was put in place to help you, and the boy with you. I’ve been looking into the Daughters for years, and we’ve never had the opportunity to help someone before it’s too late. Miss Outterridge—Dona—it’s not too late. Whatever they’ve told you, it’s not true. We can help you.”

Dona’s chin wobbled before she leaned forward to spit at the auror’s face. “Go fuck yourself.”

Max put her hands over her face, wiping away the spit before massaging her temples, wringing her hands down her cheeks. “Please, let me help you—”

“Fuck you.” Dona snapped, exhaling sharply. It took everything, everything she had not to reach for her wand. To hurt this person like she’d been hurt. To blow everything up. To set the world on fire for what it had done.

Max looked especially stressed at this, standing from her chair. “Please—”

“Get the fuck away from me.” Dona’s voice shook, and the woman shook her head, leaving the room and swinging the door shut behind her.

Max was livid as she stormed back down the hallway toward the Interrogation Room; her mission, months if not years of work and preparation and carefully-gathered intel, just for Reese to pull rank and that rabid creature she called a protege to blow it all up in a couple of hours?

Not only had this botched mission gotten Ashworth killed, but Max feared the Daughters had vanished into the wind again. The identity of their mark—the most promising lead Max had gotten in ages—was well and truly lost, turned against working with her and horrifically mistreated for nothing, all on Max’s tip from the Free Traders. But the boy…

Max knew that all boys who were kept in the service of the Daughters eventually became missing persons. She’d written the damn case file herself, in meticulous detail. So although she knew that the damage done by the Nest may have been too much to correct, although she knew it was likely too late to reach him…

Max knew she had to try.

[ Interrogation Room ]

Lee’s eyes fluttered, the white returning to them. He was breathing heavily, sweat shining on his face and neck. He looked empty, and utterly broken—a filthy dishrag that had served its purpose and was all wrung out, waiting to be disposed of. “Please…let us go. Ain’t got…nothin’ else to give ya.”

Seren nodded to herself, tutting. “Well that was enlightening, and rather cute. I’d love to pick apart that type of spell work, must be tied into blood...” The woman fluffed up her skirts as she stood. “Thank you dear boy, you’ve given us plenty.” She reached over to run her nails over his head, dragging along his skull even as Lee flinched from her touch.

“My poor darling did a number on you—my girl is fierce, I’m quite proud of her, you know…” Seren walked around him, studying the set of his shoulders and face. “You’re a walking tomb, boy, like those of pharaohs, warded and cursed into the next world. It wouldn’t take much to break them all down…” She leaned down, “…give you a clean slate, a working body, a tongue and hands that belong only to you and those you’d gift it to…”

The Auror Commander straightened and nodded to the Healer who ushered over, his face white and pinched.

“…You’ll be with your girl soon enough, but if you ever want a free life, do ask. We’ll hand it over, as long as we can charge the cost to the information in your head. Be well, and tell the Healer what your favorite candy is—she’s so very good at finding every flavor. Like an American Baskin Robbins.” Seren didn’t wait for an answer as she shut the door behind her, a few of her loyal henchmen around her.

But Max was waiting there to head her off.

On any other day, Max would not have had the nerve, but she was at the end of her rope enough to snap at Seren, “Do me a favor, Reese—the next time I ask you for backup, would you mind controlling your fucking rabid dog? You’ve got no idea the damage that your squad has done!”

Ignoring the accusations entirely, Seren just smiled at her with a black widow’s venom in the sharp curves of her lips. “I believe congratulations are in order, Major Squint? It appears you’re up for a rather unexpected promotion.”

It took Max a moment too long to understand Seren’s response, her hands on her hips, jaw locked. Reese, now the Head of the Auror Department, was giving her Ashworth’s role. It was a promotion, on paper at least. But Reese knew as well as anyone else in the Department worth their salt that Thorne had been groomed from the beginning to step into those shoes—and that Max had practically grown the Infiltration Unit with her own two hands. Becoming a Commander of Forensics, a role currently ‘reserved’ for her pseudo-girlfriend, was as good as a slap in the face.

The blonde pursed her lips, desperate not to speak further out of turn lest she fuck herself over even more, before stepping around the Commander to have a word with the boy—Max’s asset—that Reese’s cronies were manhandling.

And to her back, Seren added, “And one more thing, Max—at least all of my beasts are on leashes. Are all of Ashworth’s?”

The door closed, and Seren waited a beat before chirping to the henchmen who flanked her, “Well, hop to it then! We don’t have all day to fix Squint’s investigation. Chop chop!” The aurors all turned with a puff of white smoke, dissipating into streaming columns through the corridors, off to execute plans Seren had made when she’d beaten Ashworth for Head Auror position.

It tasted like ash, but Seren popped a lemon candy into her mouth, and walked down the hall whistling as Pierce came from the shadows to her side, a hulking shadow who kept throwing glances at the boy and the Auror Major they had left in the Interrogation Room.

[ Interrogation Room ]

Max let herself in, beyond caring about the insubordination of interrupting a ranking auror’s proceedings. The battered boy struggled against Seren’s loyal subordinates. Max waved them away, trying to dismiss them, but they hovered doggedly nearby even after releasing the boy.

Wasting no time, Max looked at him and begged desperately, “Please, don’t go…I know that my colleagues’ treatment of you has given you no reason to believe that anyone here would be on your side, but I am not like them. I can help you, I want to help you, if you’ll let me—I won’t try to make excuses for how my colleagues handled things today, but let me ask you this: is it any worse than the things that have been done to you at the hand of the Daughters? Can it even compare to what will happen, if you return to them?”

But the threat of his own life, the danger of crawling back to his lifelong abusers, seemed not to phase the boy at all. With deep and unshakeable resignation, he said coldly, “Appreciate the concern, ma’am, but I know my own people and I don’t need some uppity avocat cop with a white savior complex to save me. I know what I’m meant for, I’ve known where my life was goin’ for a long time…ain’t nothing you can do or say that’ll change it. So unless one a you wants to get in a few more lashings…?” Lee spared a hateful glance toward Seren’s goons, who returned to him blank and remorseless stares. “…I’ll find Dona, and we’ll be outta your hair.”

And he didn’t grant Max a reply before shoving his way out the door without looking back.

Max sighed, pressing fingers against the pressure points at her temple. And finally, she thought about what Seren had said; ‘All of my beasts are on leashes…are all of Ashworth’s?’

[ In the Auror Corridors... ]

“Thorne!” Athena strode down the hall as if fiendfyre was after her, Cadmus’s words echoing in her brain: “Tell Ashworth’s pet that she’s dead, make sure to tell her Squint knew, and make sure it hurts.”

“Hey, Thorne!” The woman Athena was addressing turned, a donut half hanging out of her mouth, papers stacked up to her chin, ink stains on her arms and blood around her cuticles. The Killer Case was taking it’s toll; how quaint. “Can we talk?”

Thorne raised a brow over her elfish face, spitting the half eaten donut onto the top papers in her arms. “What about?”

What a disgusting little cretin… Athena looked around, and said, “Not here. In Ashworth’s office. It’s sensitive information.”

Thorne nodded, humming to herself. “Joint mission? Must be, Ashworth’s been quiet last few days or so... but you know how the missions for the Uppers are. Always so secretive. Honestly, she forgot we had a dinner reservation last night…must be important if she’s dragging your Division Mum into it.”

Athena let her prattle on, and together they stepped through the office door and closed it tight.

[tweetiescookie]

The Sun to My Moon | B.N

A/N: I'm back and starting to update you guys with more things on the way. More wips will be coming out soon. This is going to be short.

CW: Spoilers, nothing but fluff, mentions of pregnancy, mentions of Noir's past, mentions of racial discrimination, reader is black. Other than that, enjoy.

Word count: 655

You were the sun to his moon, the light that guided him through the darkness. He first met you when you started to work at Vought. Noir would see you around running errands as you were an intern.

Every time he would see you, it's like your skin glowed when the sun hit or your silk press bouncing and didn't get him started on your smell. That sounded a little creepy, but he can't help that you just smell really good.

He saw how kind you are and don't let anything get in your way even when people are being rude to you for no reason. You both officially met after a meeting you had to attend. By then, Noir would be fully captivated with you. Nobody would be able to strip his attention from you. Although it was a one-sided conversation, it didn't matter to you.

Maybe that was what allowed him to bring down his guard around you. After that interaction, your relationship would grow, and when he would have time, he would visit you.

From there it went from friends to lovers and so on til the day of his wedding.

Though he did have to do it in secret to keep you safe. You were a breath of fresh air for Earving from seeing the horrors of the supe world. He hadn't felt this feeling in a long time.

When he was first introduced to this world, he was his first day on the job. After he joined Payback, he told him today to keep a mask on his face.

At first, he didn't really understand a part from the mysterious aura. But when he did, it almost was like a curve ball was thrown at him, and from there, it went downhill rather than up.

He has to deal with Soldier Boy and his abuse, then losing half his face. Let's not forget the breaking news that his parents basically paid to make him into a supe.

But you were there when he had nightmares or to comfort him during the shocking news. You were there when he needed someone to lean on.

It was you who had shown him that the world wasn't as cruel. You were there when he needed you to be there.

Earving didn't know what he did to deserve you, but he was glad you came into his life. So hearing the news that you were pregnant with his child had him thinking that it was a joke. As cheating wasn't an option because a) you weren't that kind of person and b) loyalty was one of your biggest attributes that caught his attention.

But it wasn't a joke at all. No, you were serious, and he had never seen you so serious. He wanted to run. However, that idea was quickly diminished when he saw it.

It disappeared just as it was there so fast he almost missed it. Fear in your eyes before you glanced away, something you did when you were nervous. So he forced himself to calm down and think about what you would do.

He hugged you in with little to no hesitance before signing comforting words into your back.

This was new to you both. Supes were never supposed to have children. Yet here you guys were sitting on the living room floor of your apartment holding a pregnancy test. In the hug, he placed a single hand on your stomach swearing to protect his child's life.

Although emotions were still kinda new to him, he felt the familiar warmth of happiness. His wife was pregnant with their kid. You had given him something he thought he would never get, and he would never be more grateful.

You truly were his sun that pulled him below and held him up like he deserved it. He knew that whatever was thrown at them, they would be able to hit back ten, no, a hundred times harder.

He would raise this child up with his pride and joy and would not let anything happen to them.

[guess-that-ship]

S11 Round 1

Same but Different

cw: suicide ideation, major spoilers

They are opposites, powerless and powerful, driven and passive, bright and sullen, sociable and closed-off, overlooked and feared; they are the same, frail, purposeless, kind, selfless, outsiders. Unneeded and Unwanted.

Unneeded holds Unwanted back from seeking death, who has grown weary of loneliness in self-exile. Through this troubled existence, Unwanted has granted Unneeded a purpose to chase, to find a proper role within their community. A futile mission by past attempts, yet the slight, only hope and companionship it brings sticks with Unwanted.

Unwanted fails to hold Unneeded back from what is considered a suicide mission, who has become determined to chase the truth for the safety of their community yet turned against it after learning said truth. Through this enmity, Unneeded has given them cause to unite, pulling Unwanted into their midst. The mission is complete, yet there is no satisfaction for the now lonely Unneeded, it had been forgotten.

The final battle is between them, powerful and powerless, unhinged and steady, hateful and grateful. Both tools with a purpose to serve their faction, one who was unneeded as a unique key to grand schemes, one who was unwanted accepted as a member and accommodated for. It is their shame that they stand separate in the end.

Weird Science

cw: drug addiction and recovery, racial discrimination

Two young geniuses meet in college. Scientist A is an aloof but brilliant poetic soul desperate to solve life's mysteries due to a tragic and sickly childhood. Scientist B is a volatile scholar desperate to prove his worth and angry over his treatment due to his race. And they were roommates. They spent most of college with only each other for company. Until Scientist B was kicked out.

With Scientist B's expulsion, the two part ways. They don't see each other again for many years, focusing on pursuing their personal passion projects in their specific areas of research. Scientist A becomes ultimately successful at his project, producing results three times. However, these success comes at a very heavy cost that leaves him falling to paranoia, jealousy, and guilt before spiraling into deep addiction. In desperation, Scientist A reaches out to Scientist B for help, not for himself but to help fix what he believes went wrong with his project.

Scientist B has also been busy working on his own projects, working a job well beneath him in order to have access to his subjects. He immediately comes to help his old friend, Scientist A. He helps A through his addiction. He also convinces A to combine their sciences to further his own research. They once more start to work together, blending both their geniuses to perfect B's project while also finding the solution to A's problems.

[spacelazarwolf]

Can i ask why people seem to only refer to black and brown people? I'm east Asian, and it can feel kind of bad not really being included in the language surrounding talk about racism. We're one of the groups that faces the most discrimination and hate crimes, especially with how covid started. Me and nearly every Asian person i know has faced racism over our lives and many of us have very pale skin. It feels very alienating to be, in a way, left out of the discussion. I understand that often we're included somewhat implicitly, but it doesn't look like it when the language doesn't represent it.

so before i get into it, i'm giving two caveats: 1. even though i'm jewish and my family and i have had a complicated history with being racialized as non white, i'm still racially white. so while i always try to take into account all the things that my family has experienced and that the people of color i know have taught me, that's still the individual perspective i'm speaking from. 2. i live in the us, so that's the culture and society i'm talking about. it may apply to different places in the west (or even outside the west idk) but it may not so like inb4 "#american centric" bc i am literally talking abt america.

re: your actual question of why people seem to only refer to black and brown people, i think it's mostly used to talk about issues that affect darker skinned people of color, but sometimes used as another variation of "people of color" that's meant to encompass all nonwhite people. i've definitely used it that way before without really thinking about it, but i can see how that could make groups who may not see themselves as being black or brown feel left out of a conversation that still absolutely pertains to them. i think we as a society are currently struggling with what vocabulary to use when we talk about racial issues. there's a bunch of different acronyms and phrases people use, and listing out all the different racial and ethnic groups we can think of always leaves someone out.

but i also think our struggles with vocabulary are caused in part by the way our view of race has become very black and white. especially when it comes to east asians, i think people fall way too easily for the model minority myth + think lighter skin = less oppression, so they think east asians don't need as much advocacy as other groups. but as you said, especially since covid, there's been a massive spike in anti asian racism, and that's something i don't think people are really taking seriously. there's this one scene in station 19 (cw for discussion of anti asian hate crimes) that i feel like addresses this so well. people are afraid to downplay the severity of anti black racism (which is understandable considering that anti black racism has been downplayed for hundreds of years), but they end up gaslighting other racial and ethnic minorities or even themselves about the other kinds of bigotry that exist. and as one of the characters states in the clip, "it's all bad."

and like, as a jewish person, i definitely feel a lot of solidarity with east asians because our struggles are dismissed in similar ways. for those of us who are light skinned, we're often told (in my experience, usually by non black people) that basically our skin is too light for people to care because "black people have it worse." people use any success our communities have had as a reason why what we experience Can't Possibly Be That Bad. but what they're missing is that it's all connected. the same people who are perpetuating anti blackness are likely perpetuating anti asian racism and antisemitism too. you can't get rid of anti black racism without dismantling white supremacy, and part of dismantling white supremacy is addressing anti asian racism and antisemitism. we can't just keep hacking away at one brick and expect the entire wall to come down. we have to bulldoze it all.

[saynomorefic]

Day 8: Identity / Discrimination for Simon's Month 2024, hosted by the lovely @youngroyals-events

Simon (finally) gets interviewed about his experience with discrimination and harassment at Hillerska.

Read on ao3 (above) or below the cut <3 (1k, T)

CW: brief mentions of racism, homophobia and *the* video

"We were told that you are one of the first people we should speak to.” A tall white woman with brown hair and glasses sat across from Simon, taking a sip of her coffee. Boris sat to her left, looking at Simon for any sign of discomfort. 

“Mhm.” Simon shifted on the edge of the stiff leather chair. Felice told him the gist of what they were going to ask him about, but he still felt shaken. He realized that he hadn't actually told anyone the whole picture before, and doing so for this committee assessment felt sterile and unwelcoming. 

“Where shall we begin?” The woman folded her hands together. Simon looked back at her. Was she just expecting him to write her a memoir? 

Boris cleared his throat. “Perhaps, Simon can start with the beginning of his time at Hillerska.” 

Grateful for the direction, Simon unfolded his hands and thought back. “In the beginning, I knew Sara and I were outsiders.” He focused on the tapping sound where the woman's pencil hit the desk. It felt like such a long time ago. “But I didn't think it would get as bad as it did.”

The woman's brow knit for a moment, and then seeming to remember herself, her face dropped to a neutral expression. “Outsiders? How so?”

Simon laughed. Actually laughed. He couldn't help it. He gestured down at himself. “Do I look like I belong here?” 

“Can you be a bit more - specific?” She asked, unamused. 

“Sure. It was the small things at first. I could feel the way they looked at us. Sometimes people would point at us when we were walking to class from the bus stop, or stare at the clothes we wear. In the beginning, it was easy to pretend I didn't see it. Marieberg had its problems, too. My sister got bullied there.” He paused. The woman was jotting something down, 

“Then, the verbal harassment started. I just thought it was people testing me, the new, non-res kid. But they’d say that word like it was dirty. Non-res. And then August started calling me sosse, because I happened to speak up aboit social issues in class.” 

“This term, sosse, is an abbreviation for socialist. But it is also has a somewhat racialized component, because Simon's mother is from Venezuela,” Boris provided. The assessor wrote something down. 

“And did you ever report this behavior?” She asked, pushing her glasses further up her nose and looking condescendingly at him. Simon wanted to yell. 

“No, I did not,” he said emphatically. Boris looked back and forth between them like he was watching a game of ping pong. 

“And may I ask why you didn't report this behavior?” Simon crossed his arms over his chest defensively. 

“Because they were being jerks. Nothing to write home about. It's not a surprise that the wealthiest school in Sweden would have a bullying or class problem.” He stared daggers at her.

The woman looked at him, finally, right in his eyes. “Mr. Eriksson. I understand your frustration. Your experience is valuable to us -”

“Yeah, and how long did it take for Hillerska to give a fuck about its minorities? Until the world found out that the little princes had gotten hazed?” Boris coughed loudly.

“Mr. Eriksson -”

“My name is Simon. Mr. Eriksson is my father.” 

“Simon,” she sighed, then smiled tightly. “I am truly, truly sorry for your experience. But things will not improve if Hillerska does not know what to fix, or how to fix it. That's where you and I come in. So please, if you will, this should only take a few more minutes.”

Boris looked at him questioningly, a silent confirmation that Simon was alright. He nodded back curtly. “What else do you want to know?” 

The woman picked up a stack of files and began to read. “It says here you were a victim of child pornography, potentially recorded by another student. Did your experience with harassment, verbal or physical, change at Hillerska after this event?”

“Excuse me, but this is entering highly sensitive, private territory involving minors and an active court case. Simon should not have to -”

“It's okay.” He took a breath. “For one, all of Hillerska knew what I looked like naked, and who was in my bed. Once Wilhelm came forward, the things people would say about me online - vile, disgusting comments about me being gay, or a class traitor, or about my race - were ten times worse. Most people at Hillerska just said those same things behind my back because of who I was dating. You can write that down,” he said, looking pointedly at her notepad. 

“I see,” she commented. “And did the school do anything to address this situation?” 

At this point, Boris began to look nervous. Hillerska did jack shit, and he knew it. They were too busy attempting to not get the school shut down over the scandal that victimized their inner sanctum, and breaking up a blood feud between the two next in line for the Swedish crown. 

“No,” he said, crossing his arms and looking out the window. 

“Hmm.” The woman paused for a moment, looking down at the papers in front of her. “I am sorry, Mr. - Simon - that your school did not attempt to provide you with the proper resources after such a traumatic event.” Simon averted his eyes towards her, a surprising amount of emotion on her face like a break in the clouds. 

“Thank you,” he said, looking at Boris. 

“And I am sorry, too, that priorities were elsewhere,” he stated, folding one of his legs over the other. “It was unacceptable.” He looked embarrassed. Simon felt his throat constrict. 

“Are we done?” He asked, looking back and forth between them. The woman looked at Boris and said something quietly. He shook his head. 

“You can go now, Simon. Thank you very much.” Boris’s eyes flashed kindly at him. He left the room in a daze, ambling towards his locker to collect his things. Sara planned to meet him afterwards; he couldn't imagine talking to anyone else about what had just happened. 

“Hey,” Alexander said, brushing past Simon in the hallway. 

“Hey,” Simon muttered, turning to watch him walking away. He was headed quite purposefully towards Boris' office.

[academiaipromise]

things that i want everyone to know about the return of true tv (riverdale season 7)

this season was promoted on the promise that you don’t need to have seen any of the other six seasons of this show. they also parodied nicole kidman’s “heartbreak feels good in a place like this” amc advert. 

as we know this season is set in the 1950s (in case you missed it, they were sent back in time after bailey’s comet almost killed them all) and jughead is the only one who remembers the present. 

brief interlude taken to condemn the murder of emmett till...okay back to the guardian angel plot line (???)

veronica is a ‘50s hollywood actress who is going to high school to get a sense of small town life before the filming of our town (1940?? maybe i misunderstood this dialogue tbh) 

cheryl’s twin brother is alive but he’s not jason he’s julian (for those keeping track, this has raised our ginger ratio on this show to an unacceptable number) [i am ginger and approve this message]

betty’s dad is back and probably not a serial killer but probably racist (we’re still having wild tonal shifts from jughead trying to restore his friends’ memories to prevent more wacky time travel to toni and betty trying to bring attention to the murder of emmett till) 

shazam reference! ✨ synergy ✨

hot rod archie hot rod archie hot rod archie (if this somehow ends in a performance of greased lightning...)

jughead finds the time capsule they buried after graduation and tries to use the objects to convince everyone they’re from the future 

“kevin...you directed some musicals...and were in...an organ harvesting cult” 

jughead explains to the group that if they do not want to wait for the comet they could instead get betty and archie to make out on a bed and detonate a bomb under them. i love being reminded of this thing that actually happened on tv. 

i need to be real with y’all i find 1950s archie really endearing he somehow has all of the stupidity of modern day archie but it’s presented as naive innocence (”i like. cars. sports. and fishing” like i love that for him!) 

cheryl walks into pops and shouts “j’accuse!” at veronica catching her in a lie after she said that she had been cast in our town, but oh ho, cheryl has found out from her movie magazine that it is actually natalie wood! but i’m here to catch them both in a lie because there is no adaptation of our town starring natalie wood so. 

veronica was involved with the 1955 car accident that killed james dean and her parents subsequently banished her. if you cared. 

there is this subplot about the push for safe driving after the james dean crash which i know did happen but this is clearly an issue for hot rod archie!!

rip hot rod archie he has agreed to unsoup his car 

just saw a WILD ad for reign on the cw streaming app...the end of the cw hurts all of us 

“good morning riverdalians” [transitions straight to a reading of “Mississippi–1955” by langston hughes holy shit] 

my joke post is not the place where i feel i have the nuance and space to discuss how this episode is engaging with racial discrimination and the civil rights movement but just know that it’s...it’s something to know about [edit: here is an interview about the decisions to include these plot points this season. i think it provides some important perspective on both the history of this show and the intent behind it, though of course intent ultimately doesn’t matter in terms of effect. still, a good start to have]

tabitha (the real tabitha, the guardian angel of riverdale), returns to talk to jughead and tells him that she used what was left of her life force to send everyone to the past but because the comet destroyed riverdale in that timeline, everyone needs to try to thrive in the 50s in order to find a path back to a different future. 

you know what no one else is gonna give blake neely the credit he deserves so i’ll mention that this version of the riverdale theme is actually really gorgeous. sir if you’re reading this please know that i listened to the riverdale score aggressively while writing on the cw for my ma thesis and it would not have been finished without you thank you for your service.

tabitha takes jughead’s memories and he tries to write them down before he forgets, only to forget after writing the words “bend. towards. justice.” (yes as in the martin luther king jr quote) and he finds his beanie from the future. end of episode. 

in conclusion:

[ordonianhero]

Story time

Cw: mention of harassment

When I was in high school around early 2000s I joined “gay straight alliance”. During that time I studied the numbers of those apart of the lgbtq+ were discriminated against in schools when identifying as lgbtq+ and how schools felt with that. It grabbed the attention to our local news paper asking me to make a commentary piece in it. Mind you I was a junior in high school.

I wrote the piece with facts and proof how it was still on going. How schools need to change their policy on “S.H.” To included those apart of the lgbtq+ community. We brought a visual with desks that showed what daily life was like for those who are lgbtq and stories of people murdered based on their sexual and gender identity.

That summer school changed their policy, adding sexuality and identity of lgbtq+ being included based on things I said and did. In my senior year. I was saved by said policy. And here is how. I was in a class where I helped with disabled teens (since I couldn’t do p.e. For my health) there was a student who I friended and who begin reporting false reports I was making advanced on her. This was only when she found out I was a trans. Every day I was pulled out of class for false reports.

On Halloween i was nearly kicked from school till my parents slept in and explained what was going on since apparently nobody else would listen to me. I was was having panic attacks over this. Like imagine this. You’re in a class and being pulled out of it by a police officer to tell you to quit making advances on someone who you weren’t making advances towards. Yeah. That!

The school then finally recognized I was the true victim. Sadly their way of dealing with it was locking me in a class room for my safety I stead of dealing with the student making the false reports. My friends (bless them) took me side and went after the person and called them out on their behavior once they knew what happened.

The person left our school. This person used their religious belief to S.H. Me and make false reports because they thought they could get away with it. So…….

With all that going on in the Linked universe with this server. And then publicly posting (we got recites idiots) of their true behavior and such. Reminds me of this all over again. So no! I Will not let this happen again. NO WHERE IN YOUR RELIGION GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO TARGET US IN THIS FANDOM. YOUR VIEW IS FAKE NEWS! (Also don’t quote the Bible, cause Bible was written like a fanfiction by people who had no connection to god/goddesses.)

So this my personal experience on this issue. Do I hate religion. No. I think religion is good in helping people better themselves in a spiritual side. However nowhere does religion excuse the amount of judgment a person makes. God/Goddesses love you no matter who you are. If your lgbtq+ they love you. If you believe differently (region wise) they love you. Racially different, you were loved.

Along the line of schools showing porn to children, people who have been found to be false. In elementary all we learned in separate gender classes about what to expect from our body changes. Middle school to high school was about being smart and using protection and about sexual transmitted disease. Nothing bout sexuality. Which was hardly touched on. Nothing pornagraphic! Doubt they are doing that even now! Your proof and reports are in fake reports. So hi. We are calling you out because you’re the reason majority of those who identify as lgbtq+ and such are the target of misinformation and people with dangerous ideology. Ones where many may ender their life due to your comments. To lot worst. So don’t “@“ me. I won’t respond, but will expose you, so people know who not to trust.

I am here to protect my fellow people. You didn’t need to say what you said, because now we all know in a app and fandom surrounded by people of all walks of life. Who we know not to trust. Don’t want to make it politics, well fuck. That was on you when you publicly announced the server. “Don’t like pride on a political commercial” guess what. Many died to make pride to happen. That ain’t political or commercial. That was wanting equality rights. To be allowed to love who they love and not be thrown in jail over it. Gay marriage, I can’t tell you how sad it is that people are so stuck thinking gay marriage ruins those who are straight. It harms no one. You’re the one worrying how it impacts you.

Gender affirming surgery is necessary. I know each state delt with that differently and yes a small percentage detransition. However Majora is medically necessary. Many doctors refuse to do surgery on those who are of teenage, unless parental okay and a clinical counselor signs off it is needed so this person gets ontop of hormone therapy. You facts are incorrect and done by people who have been found incredible.

So go on, play like we don’t know or seen your true shit. Your facts are false. Your language is harmful and we ain’t throwing an tantrum. We are calling you out. Your views are false views based of fake documents. And if your religion truely telling you to discriminated a whole community of folks based of how they are. That ain’t a religion.

Any ways. Enjoy your life. Must be hard to spend so much you life hating people based on fake shit.

[talkingtea]

With the way things were racially I honestly feel if the CW would have handled the racism correctly, they could have garnered a bigger audience. If they took the approach to address and better equip, discuss why those not even affected by it need to speak up and how to do so, it could have done wonders, brought awareness and viewers. It would have made those on the receiving in feel safer and the racists swarm as everyone was given the confidence to speak up. Like imagine having a discussion with the cast and others on how to deal with co stars who are being attacked or discriminated against

☕️☕️☕️

[bluesunsdusk]

Fandoms

Overwatch - Canon-divergent and headcanon-heavy

Mass Effect

Dragon Age

Elder Scrolls

Fable

Fallout

Note: Links use Google Drive.

GUIDELINES

Rules/Guidelines Docs

Read these rules before interacting, and make sure you can follow them. If you have questions, you’re entirely free to DM me or send an anon ask.

This blog has low or sporadic activity and only threads with mutuals. Side blogs are an exception, since they’ll have to follow with their main blogs. I am fine getting messages from non-mutuals, whether rp blog or not.

I will not follow or thread with people if they are under 18. If you have no listed age (doesn’t have to be exact), you will be assumed to be under 18. Please, don’t try to befriend me if you’re under 18 either.

This blog will not interact with young children’s media characters. Examples are: Steven Universe, Craig of the Creek, Sonic, Scooby-Doo, MLP. 

This blog will contain dark subject matter. This ranges from social inequality (although fictitious) to abuse and torture. Bear that in mind when interacting. It’s fine to say when something is too much for you or to just not reply to threads if you need a break from a dark thread. I will attempt to tag things as # [subject matter] cw (example: #body horror cw) or simply the subject matter without the cw part.

Do not reblog threads you aren’t a part of. You can reblog drabbles and art. I will sometimes tag things that are alright to reblog with #ok to rb.

Try to reblog rp memes from the source if possible. I usually won’t get that annoyed if someone forgets to do it, and I don’t employ reblog karma, but I don’t want my notes filled with people not sending me anything either. It doesn’t feel nice.

No godmodding/godmoding or metagaming. Powerful muses are fine, but RP is about making things fun for both parties involved. Things like auto-hitting and taking control of other’s characters without consent does not fit in with that.

OOC =/= IC. Keep the two separate.

No sexually explicit/smut interactions. No sending sexually explicit asks. I may be an adult (past 25, even), but that’s not what I am in this hobby for. I am not sex-repulsed and mature topics and sexual themes can be discussed, but that will be the extent of it on this blog.

No pointless drama. No toxicity. No call-outs. No anon hate. If you don’t like someone, block them. Unless someone does something actually heinous, no amount of drama is worth your energy. Any shitty anon will be immediately blocked.

No racial, lgbt+, religious, ableist or national discrimination. This counts generally ooc, but it counts ic to some extent as well. I understand some characters can be bigots while the mun isn’t, I have characters who hate humans for example, but it’s important to make sure you’re not making people uncomfortable. I rather not rp that myself either.

No underaged shit. No incest shit. No noncon shit. Don’t even think of messaging me to argue your way out of falling under this rule. I am not here to discuss what counts as what. If I don’t like what I see on a blog, I will block it.

Keep irl politics to a minimum. While there’s in-universe politics that may be similar to irl politics and some may reveal a mun’s basic political beliefs, this is an rp/character account. I would like the focus to remain on the characters.

Try not to vague post too much. Sometimes, you may need to make a post addressing a general behavior or making a general announcement, but it’s best to address someone privately and directly if it is about them. I understand that some people may feel too nervous to do so, but vague posting about a specific individual is not nice and makes people uncomfortable.

Keep ooc negativity to a minimum. Constant or frequent streams of ooc negativity can have a serious negative effect on the mental health of the people you interact with, so it’s important to be mindful. This counts for vague posts as well.

No forced shipping. I am fine with your character having feelings for mine, as long as no one assumes it’s mutual. Generally, it’s better to check with someone ooc before assuming a ship, even if two characters are vibing really well or a ship is canon in the source material the characters are from.

No rushing or ultimatums. If I see someone rushing rp partners or a rules page with something like “If you don’t respond/reach out in two weeks, I’ll block” I will not likely be following back. This is a hobby and people move at their own pace. Mine so happens to be unreliable and dependent on the muse in question. Being expected to hold myself to a deadline would be stressful.

No ask spamming/chain mail. I am fine and happy with being sent a lot of asks and I enjoy the occasional dash game, but try not to do chain asks or send 20 of the same thing. That would be a little much! I’ll get overwhelmed. Thanks for the enthusiasm though. I won’t block anyone over this unless it’s some form of anon hate or harassment.

Be nice, be decent. Have some sense. Don’t be a dick. If anyone treats me like shit, I will have to block and I am under no obligation to explain why or try to talk it out. Anyone is free to block me as well.

No block evasion. If someone blocks you, don’t try to make a new account to bother them. While I understand wanting to know why you were blocked or if you can talk things out, and I am certainly more forgiving than some, it is a breach of someone’s boundaries and that is not alright.

No asking for monetary or business favors. I don’t know you and I do not appreciate people online thinking they can take advantage of me. Do not solicit me to share your rp or commission promos when I don’t know you. Do not ask for free art when you learn I do commissions.

If you want my discord, talk to me over IM first. I generally don’t add just anybody to discord, not even most of my art clients.

OOC tags:

RP wishlist

Ship stuff

ooc shitposts

psa

Music

ooc

RP memes

Sentence starters

 

C͓͈͚̺̟̯̙͐̂̊o̲̦̣̬̓ͅn̠̖̱̥̈͐ͯ͠n̢͈͈͎͔̳ͦe̗̓̆̽ͧ͒͢c̿͏̗̬̜͓̩̻̺ẗ̯̮̳̭̹͔́̂̂i̞̪̺̝̮͂̋̈́̾̈́͌̂͝o̓̆̎n̵͍̤͑ ̜̱̪̯ͩ͛ͬͅe̎̿͜r͇͇r̬̯̱͓̣͍̰ͫͯͮ̏͠ŏͤ̏̀̌̈́r̜̟̦̲̲͕̭̃͘.̫̭͕̖̒ͮͧͩͪ̓̽.̢̝̘̫͇͓̯̦͌ͦ̊͒̇̚.̹̫̍͐̽̓̊̓

[lagoonaballoona]

josephine with her pet cheetah, chiquita

josephine traveling by ostrich in budapest

when she was a spy for the french resistance, she took advantage of her ability to travel around europe as an entertainer without arousing suspicion to gather and smuggle information, including by writing messages on her sheet music in invisible ink and pinning notes to her underwear

in budapest she was the subject of a duel between a hungarian calvary officer and the ersatz italian count who served as her manager (josephine watched them swordfight for a few minutes then made them stop and settle their differences with only minor injuries sustained)

in addition to her famous cheetah and more conventional animals like cats, dogs and fish, her pets included a pig named albert and a goat named toutoute

she was an outspoken civil rights activist and her refusal to perform for segregated audiences help integrate entertainment venues. she spoke at the 1963 march on washington right before dr. martin luther king jr. gave his "i have a dream" speech, saying

I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens, and into the houses of presidents and much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad. And when I get mad, you know that I open my big mouth. And then look out, 'cause when Josephine opens her mouth, they hear it all over the world. [...]

Now I am not going to stand in front of all of you today and take credit for what is happening now. I cannot do that. But I want to take credit for telling you how to do the same thing, and when you scream, friends, I know you will be heard. And you will be heard now.

you can read her whole speech here (cw for a racial slur, in the context of describing discrimination she's experienced)

Propaganda

Anna May Wong (The Thief of Bagdad, Shanghai Express)—Wong was the first Chinese American movie star, arguably the first Asian woman to make it big in American films. Though the racism of the time often forced her into stereotypical roles, awarded Asian leading roles to white actors in yellowface, and prohibited on-screen romance between actors of different races, she delivered powerful and memorable performances. When Hollywood bigotry got to be too much, she made movies in Europe. Wong was intellectually curious, a fashion icon, and a strong advocate for authentic Asian representation in cinema. And, notably for the purposes of this tournament, absolutely gorgeous.

Josephine Baker (The Siren of the Tropics, ZouZou)— Josephine Baker was an American born actress, singer, and utter icon of the period, creating the 1920s banana skirt look. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion film. She fought in the French resistance in WWII, given a Legion of Honour, as well as refusing to perform in segregated theatres in the US. She was bisexual, a fighter, and overall an absolutely incredible woman as well as being extremely attractive.

This is round 6 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Anna May Wong propaganda:

"She so so gorgeous!! Due to Hollywood racism she was pretty limited in the roles she got to play but even despite that she’s so captivating and deserves to be known as a leading lady in her own right!! When she’s on screen in Shanghai Express I can’t look away, which is saying something because Marlene Dietrich is also in that film."

"SHE IS ON THE BACK OF QUARTERS also she was very smart and able to speak multiple languages and is a fashion icon on top of the acting/singing"

"Paved the way for Asian American actresses AND TOTAL HOTTIE!!! She broke boundaries and made it her mission to smash stereotypes of Asian women in western film (at the time, they were either protrayed them as delicate and demure or scheming and evil). In 1951, she made history with her television show The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first-ever U.S. television show starring an Asian-American series lead (paraphrased from Wikipedia). Also, never married and rumor has it that she had an affair with Marlene Dietrich. We love a Controversial Queen!"

"She's got that Silent Era smoulder™ that I think transcends the very stereotypical roles in which she was typically cast. Also looks very hot smouldering opposite Marlene Dietrich in "Shanghai Express"; there's kiss energy there."

"Hot as hell and chronically overlooked in her time, she's truly phenomenal and absolutely stunning"

"A story of stardom unavoidably marred by Hollywood racism; Wong's early-career hype was significantly derailed by the higher-up's reluctance to have an Asian lead, and things only got worse when the Hayes code came down and she suddenly *couldn't* be shown kissing a white man--even if that white man was in yellowface. After being shoved into the Dragon Lady role one too many times, she took her career to other continents for many years. Still, she came back to America eventually, being more selective in her roles, speaking out against Asian stereotypes, and in the midst of all of this finding the time to be awarded both the title of "World's Best Dressed Woman" by Mayfair Mannequin Society of New York and an honorary doctorate by Peking University."

"Incredible beauty, incredible actress, incredible story."

"-flapper fashion ICON. look up her fits please <3 -rumors of lesbianism due to her Close Friendships with marlene dietrich & cecil cunningham, among others -leveraged her star power to criticize the racist depictions of Chinese and Asian characters in Hollywood, as well as raise money and popular support for China & Chinese refugees in the 1930s and 40s. -face card REFUSED to decline"

Josephine Baker:

Black, American-born, French dancer and singer. Phenomenal sensation, took music-halls by storm. Famous in the silent film era.

Let's talk La Revue Negre, Shuffle Along. The iconique banana outfit? But also getting a Croix de Guerre and full military honors at burial in Paris due to working with the Resistance.

She exuded sex, was a beautiful dancer, vivacious, and her silliness and humor added to her attractiveness. She looked just as good in drag too.

So I know she was more famous for other stuff than movies and her movies weren’t Hollywood but my first exposure to her was in her films so I’ve always thought of her as a film actress first and foremost. Also she was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture so I think that warrants an entry

Iconic! Just look up anything about her life. She was a fascinating woman.

[guess-that-ship]

S11 Round 2

Two Sides of the Same Coin

cw: major spoilers, suicidal ideation

Heads and Tails are the same person. Heads is the first, having been put in a situation they couldn't bear to be in anymore, and due to divine intervention is placed in a new body to guide Tails, who has been put in the same situation they were in. Tails does not know the real identity of Heads, and Heads intends to keep it that way. Due to their intense self-loathing, Heads passive-agressively lets it out at Tails, teasing him all the time, and yet they are the one person Tails can confide in about their situation, and both bond over it.

Eventually, everything is too much for Tails to bear, and they lash out at everyone, Heads included due to the secrets they've kept from him. The situation being all too familiar, in order to stop Tails from destroying themself like they did before, Heads, while never directly engaging with him, helps from a distance, guiding Tails towards his happy ending. And Heads hates it. It's not fair that fate wanted them to fail just so Tails could do what they couldn't.

When Tails returns, Heads explains everything about what happened to them, and forces Tails to fight them to see who gets to keep this happy ending. They hate Tails because they hate themself, and they hate themself because they hate Tails. But Tails doesn't feel the same way. When he wins, Heads just wants Tails to kill them and be done with it, but Tails refuses. It was thanks to them that Tails was able to get their happy ending, and it wouldn't be right to keep either of them from it. Heads fades away, their job done, but both promise to meet again.

Weird Science

cw: drug addiction and recovery, racial discrimination

Two young geniuses meet in college. Scientist A is an aloof but brilliant poetic soul desperate to solve life's mysteries due to a tragic and sickly childhood. Scientist B is a volatile scholar desperate to prove his worth and angry over his treatment due to his race. And they were roommates. They spent most of college with only each other for company. Until Scientist B was kicked out.

With Scientist B's expulsion, the two part ways. They don't see each other again for many years, focusing on pursuing their personal passion projects in their specific areas of research. Scientist A becomes ultimately successful at his project, producing results three times. However, these success comes at a very heavy cost that leaves him falling to paranoia, jealousy, and guilt before spiraling into deep addiction. In desperation, Scientist A reaches out to Scientist B for help, not for himself but to help fix what he believes went wrong with his project.

Scientist B has also been busy working on his own projects, working a job well beneath him in order to have access to his subjects. He immediately comes to help his old friend, Scientist A. He helps A through his addiction. He also convinces A to combine their sciences to further his own research. They once more start to work together, blending both their geniuses to perfect B's project while also finding the solution to A's problems.

[dreamhot]

I'm really glad that George stood up for himself and said he wouldn't acknowledge things from years ago. I myself have been playing minecraft for over 12 years and am around George's age, when I look back at the things I used to say in videos and recordings I took I find it shocking how easily me and my friends and the greater community said insensitive things. The server I used to play on for years had this massive culture of mocking and excluding the rather sizable minority of Arab players, and looking back at the things people said about it is just really sad. however I do believe that we can all grow and become better people, I'm just really glad George respects his own boundaries so much and doesn't let people push him around. I also don't think younger people understand how toxic gaming spaces were (still are), especially male dominated spaces. (sry if this is rambly)

i think there's a worthwhile conversation to be had here, namely in that we can acknowledge that this behaviour is unfortunately normalised in gaming spaces in particular all while highlighting how fucked up it is that we can almost hand-wave it as a result. it should never be the intention to act like it's okay simply bc it's common - there's something to be said for how a Lot of (often white cishet male, though not exclusively) people can effectively 'get away with' racism/misogyny/homophobia (et al) because it's the culture and/or it's considered a 'joke'/trash talk/etc in context

obviously those who show accountability and growth shouldn't have to be judged for the rest of their lives (tho if someone chooses not to forgive them, that's their prerogative ofc), but that doesn't mean it's any less sad to think about how common it is to see so many people who have this spotty history with language usage (or just . full on racism/discrimination, like the server you mentioned). it's part of the whole privilege parcel - it shouldn't HAVE to be normal that so many people had an 'edgy' past, and hopefully we'll be seeing less and less of that sort of thing as time goes on

[fuck-customers]

So this is a story from 2020, but fuck my coworker. Also fuck my dad. Bc my dad was my coworker and fuck him. Cw: racism and cw: animal harm bc my dad is a dickbag that discriminated against his customers and hurt animals at our job.

At the very beginning (like February 2020) of the pandemic, I needed a job so I applied to the same pet store my dad worked. My dad was a dog groomer and I was a stocker. Then lockdown started, the salon closed, and he got moved to overnight stocking with me. I guess bc we were working with each other, my dad felt comfortable telling me about the shitty things he did as a dog groomer.

He straight up told me he'd discriminate against his customers. He got written up a couple times because too many people wanted refunds on his grooming. So he started racially discriminating against people and thought it was the "practical" thing to do. Because I guess the thought only black customers were the ones complaining about his grooming and demanding refunds?? He also told me that if a dog was giving him a hard time, he'd "accidentally" nick the dog with the razor so it'd bleed and he'd have to stop the service. Policy said to stop grooming all dogs if they got injured so he'd just hurt the dogs that annoyed him so he didn't have to deal with them anymore. And he thought this was fine because the store had an on-site vet so the dogs would get immediate medical attention. I quit that job and before I put in my two weeks, I reported him to HR for all the shit he told me. I'd started writing down the shit he told me in a journal and gave that to HR. He eventually got fired but bc it was after I quit, I wasn't informed if it was because of my report. I also moved out and stopped talking to him entirely.

[flemmothy]

[CW: discussion of historic racism] The racial category of "white" is arbitrary and has nothing to do with skin colour. I know that historically in the US Irish and Italian immigrants have been considered non-White with many signs on bars, pubs and neighbourhoods declaring things like "No Blacks, Chinese, Irish or Italians" This only changed when these groups started building solidarity with each other. At that point Irish and Italians started being considered white so they would gain some (tenuous) privilege they could loose through association with minorities lower on the social hierarchy.

That is not to say that the experiences of discrimination against Irish etc where at all comparable with the magnitude and brutality of chattel slavery, just that white is a category that is awarded to groups of people based on utility to a white supremacist system, often without affecting the actual hierarchies that are in effect between groups of white people.

[yourfavbinerdgf]

MHA Headcanons: What The Heck Is Going On In The United States?

The main story of MHA takes place in Japan so we don’t hear much about what life is like in United States. Not that I’m upset about that, but I often speculate about what life is like for Americans in a world of quirks and heroes because I’m an American myself. So, here are some of my headcanons about life the United States in the MHA universe. 

CW: Racism and police brutality mention

1. The pro-hero profession would be very closely linked to the United States military, they would be government employees like in Japan. Many heroes would probably be veterans who became pro-heroes upon their exit from the military (like the police irl).

2. A lot of pro-heroes would have very patriotic concepts, their costumes would be ugly variations of the American flag.

3. Heroes would be treated like celebrities much like in Japan, the hero worship culture would be stronger due to fact that heroes would probably lean heavily into patriotism and American exceptionalism. Also because like I said in #1, many heroes would probably be veterans.

4. High school hero courses would probably be similar to JROTC programs and minors in the US would not be able to do the things we see the students in the UA hero courses do. So, most students from countries like Japan where minors are allowed to have a limited license wait until they are 18 to study abroad in the United States. 

5. Heroes would probably be stationed wherever the US hero commission feels they fit best based on a few factors (quirk-climate compatibility, ethnic and racial demographics bc I doubt racism will have gone away, and focus group approval in a given area) and they can be moved upon request if the commission approves. Or they can get moved for disciplinary reasons as well. 

6. Other licensed employees (healthcare/medical personnel, educators, other first responders) must get another secondary license allowing them to use their quirk on the job if it enhances their ability to do their job. They must prove that their quirk will help them with their work. This protects them from lawsuits 😅.

7. Unlicensed quirk use would definitely be harshly punished with disproportionate prison time and insane fines... this is America we’re talking about here lmao

8. The United States pro-hero industry and the Japanese pro-hero industry are in constant competition. It’s a healthy rivalry.

9. All-might has a huge fanbase, a lot of popular Japanese heroes have decent American followings as well 

10. There would a excessive force problem among heroes and the police still :(

11. The intersections of quirk discrimination and racism/xenophobia would probably be a huge social justice issue.  

[eagledreaming]

SO, given Hime’s advice, I am going to make a post about how Wunna’s first year in Western Civilization changed him into the person he is. 

CW for Classism, Racism, Ableism, and Discrimination that may show up during the post. 

I don’t plan to have this happen any more after this one, but I HAVE to get my thoughts out. Because this kinda stuff is important to him as a character, even if I am rambling a bit about it all.

After Wunna had lost his arm, it actually took him a fair deal to get some level of help at all. For starters, he wasn’t really registered in any health databanks, he wasn’t signed up in any government records, he wasn’t listed as an Australian Citizen at all. Because he was raised in the outback far from Colonial Civilization with people who were rather reclusive and kept away from Colonial Civilization.

Thus, no GPs, No Hospitals, barely anyone would help him, they called him all manner of racial and classist slurs that I don’t want to think on for my own sanity. He got help from a sympathetic medically trained person eventually. They had to explain everything to him, although slowly because Wunna wasn’t very good at English. He had experienced the racism of Australia too, and was helping Wunna out of the kindness of his own heart.

Even though the Doctor had no reason to help him, because it was of no benefit to them at all, he still did anyway. Despite all the cruelty he had spent, going from place to place for an entire week, it was the kindness that stuck out to him more. Because it was a rare thing, and it felt good to be treated with kindness from a stranger.

This, along with his upbringing of helping out your fellow people, is what made him decide to not lash out in anger against people for their cruelty. Instead he would be like those who raised him, and that doctor who helped him, kind in a world that was taught to be cruel.

It goes even further than that of course, because after he recovered, he decided to help around in this society he found himself in. He took on jobs as a freelancer, who could help with stuff like heavy lifting, or temporary bounce work due to his strength and skill, or helping with hunting as he got more into the mage side of things.

All throughout this time in both Human and Mage societies, the cruelty never stopped. He was a Ridiculously Tall, Non-Masculine, Bisexual, With extremely long hair, darker skin than most, who had a prosthetic arm, no full time job, and most importantly; Compassionate. All of which could be picked out and picked on, discriminated against for any number of reasons that people decide. 

He never stopped being Kind though. If he were cruel to other people, they would feel as bad as he did when people were cruel to him. He wouldn’t have people subject to that. Instead he would be ever kind, understanding, and compassionate, even when it might be detrimental to him.

No matter how much cruelty the world will throw at him, he’ll remain Kind. Even when he shouldn’t. Even when he is betrayed by people. Even when people try to kill him. Even when people treat him like trash. He won’t be cruel to them, as everyone deserves at least someone who is unconditionally kind to them.