#the legal definition of meta is so loose because it had to include people like superman and martian manhunter

[avayarising]

“Ghost Hunters?” Bruce’s growl is deep.

“There’s nothing you can do,” sighs Danny. “They’re backed by the US government. I go back to the States, they’ll be after me, and you can't stop them.”

“Oh,” says Tim, a long-drawn-out song of epiphany. Oh-OH-oh. “You mean the Ghost Investigation Ward? Rogue branch of the Dee Ee Oh, capturing and torturing ghosts in the name of research?”

“Yeah,” Danny huffs, defeated. “Them.”

“They’re gone.”

Danny blinks. “What?”

“They’re gone,” Tim repeats. “Disbanded. Labs and prison destroyed, captives released, data wiped. There’s nothing left.” “Are you sure? How do you know they’re gone?”

“Because I’m one of the people that brought them down.”

Hope and gratitude spark in Danny’s eyes. “You did?”

“Yep. Me and my team. A couple of years ago now. We met a ghost trying to escape from them and she told us what was going on, and once she'd recovered she helped us take them down. We went in, got everyone out, wiped the server and blew up a bunch of stuff. Then I went to Batman, and he took it back to the Justice League. The Green Lanterns got involved. The agents in charge were arrested, trialled, and jailed. The Lanterns have been keeping tabs ever since. That shit was super illegal.”

“Illegal? But… the Anti Ecto Acts?”

“Anti Ecto Acts?” “You know, ghosts are by definition non-sentient and hazardous, must be reported on sight and secured or destroyed?”

Tim shakes his head. “Nup. No such thing.”

“No, but, there is, because… they told us…”

“Who told you?” growls Jason.

“The Guys In…” Danny pauses a moment, and then takes in a quick breath and lets it go. “Oh.”

“There was an Anti-Ecto Bill, a few years ago,” Batman adds into the pause of realisation. “It didn’t get far. It was completely incompatible with the Meta Protection legislation. A few news articles were published, and it died a quick death.”

Jason whispers something that sounds like “Go lowest!”

Danny’s trembling with the weight of his hope. “But… ghosts aren’t metas…?”

“The legal definition of ‘meta’ is pretty loose,” Batman says with a quirk of his lips. “A meta is ‘any person who shows abilities outside the normal human range’. Legally speaking, Nightwing is a meta.”

“Stupid flexible joints,” mutters Jason.

Damian elbows him. “Stop grumbling. You’re legally a meta too.”

“Yeah, but coming back from the dead is much more obviously an extrahuman ability than –”

The squabble that breaks out is more for the purpose of squabbling than out of any real investment in any side of the argument. Under its cover, Danny quietly turns to Batman. “So… I'm safe?"

He seems small and fragile now, the powerful, self-assured teacher and assassin gone, leaving just a young – a very young – man. “I can… I can go home?”

I've had a brainworm for a few days now so here me out.

After an accidental reveal gone wrong, Danny is forced to flee the country with both his parents and the giw after him. While he's trying to find some place internationally to settle down, he comes across a secluded complex.

Said complex happens to have access to an ectoplasm run off which Danny is in desperate need of. Though it has been corrupted by whatever the people of the complex have been doing to it, that's no problem for Danny as he can easily purify the portion he takes in to survive.

Deciding this is the perfect place to live off the grid, Danny sets to work figuring out how to blend in. It turns out that's the easy part. With his temporary stint as a ninja, his training with his black belt mom, and his general ghost physiology, he fits in pretty well.

He fits in so well in fact that he is told he'll be training someone one of the head bosses has their eye on. A kid his age.

Basically what follows is Danny accidentally ruining Talia's plans for Jason by unconsciously purifying his corruption and just talking him through his emotions. When Jason gets back to Gotham, he returns without a clouded mentally and realizes just how much Bruce went through after his death.

Instead of unleashing his complicated plan, he quietly takes over the underworld. He loves his father but also knows there are situations in Gotham that require a more firm hand. Jason decides to be a firm hand in his dad's place.

(I imagine he is only revealed on accident yet his reunion with his family is just as dramatic as Under the Red Hood. Tbh it probably has something to do with the joker suddenly going missing.)

Meanwhile back at the League of Assassins, Talia is impressed by Jason's training and is under the impression that his failure in Gotham is due to him getting cold feet at the last second so she puts Danny in charge of Damian's training.

Danny this time takes a more conscious role in ruining the league's brainwashing by challenging Damian's beliefs and teaching him he should use his weapons to protect, not to harm. By the time Damian gets to Wayne Manor, there is significantly less deprogramming that needs to be done.

[makeste]

reading your meta, I feel like that's another reason (with protecting them) why Izuku didn't confide in any of his friends (apart from Katsuki, but that's his bf u know, hoes before bros) about OFA. if he feels like he has to save everyone in his faulted (but very human!) view, that makes sense. so, he will probably tell them after Katsuki (who doesn't like the secrecy as seen in the flashback) punches some sense into him. I would love Ochako, Iida and Shouto to also make him see he's not alone

I think that’s definitely part of it -- he didn’t want to burden them. Katsuki, as you said, was an exception, because Kacchan is always an exception for him. but yeah, if and when some sense-knocking does go down, I’m hoping one of the results will be Deku (and All Might) finally letting their guard down enough to let a few of the others in on the secret. actually I’m almost positive this is going to happen no matter what before much longer. there’s a lot building up to this.

first, there’s the practicality aspect of it all. Deku is reaching a tipping point (actually he might have already tipped right on over it lol) where feeble excuses like “oh wow, look at that, it must be a weird secondary aspect of my quirk that I never knew existed till now!” are simply not going to work anymore. no one is going to buy some half-assed “guess what guys, my super strength quirk slash spider-man energy web quirk randomly and spontaneously evolved on the spot to also include a floating quirk and an OH NO, DANGER!! quirk! how about that! fucking quirks, man!! wild!!” no, Deku. THAT LINE CAN ONLY GET YOU SO FAR.

second, there’s his increasingly trippy connection to AFO which is also going to become more and more difficult to hide as events wear on. it would not at all surprise me if he got up to some more AFOFA shenanigans in the OFA Astral Plane as soon as the very next chapter. plus people are going to start wondering why TomurAFO was/is after him.

and lastly, though he might not even realize it yet, with the downfall of first All Might and now Endeavor, and with AFO growing exponentially more powerful in that same span of time, Deku is pretty much on the fast track now to being the World’s Best And Possibly Only Hope. though it’s not just him, really. it’s all of the kids. but the simple fact that he’s the one with the quirk that’s been passed down through the ages for the sole purpose of defeating AFO means that he’s the one who’s going to be at the center of it all.

this last arc was a coming-of-age arc for all of the U.A. students. they found themselves on the front lines of probably the largest-scale battle in quirk-era history, and not only did they survive, they ended up being the ones who made the difference. Tokoyami confronted Dabi and saved Hawks. the Momosquad defeated Gigantofuckingmachia!! Ochako faced one of the strongest villains in the series solo, completely held her own, and still had enough left in the tank to go out and rescue god knows how many more people afterwards. and Shouto, Katsuki, and Deku took on literally the strongest villain of all time, held their own, and came this close to actually defeating him. and not only that, but managed to hold off Dabi as well. with only a year of training under their belts.

and the adults? what is there to say. sure, a handful of them made it out more or less unscathed, but now they’re dealing with a situation that is magnitudes past anything they’re capable of handling. the entire Billboard Top 10 is either dead or in critical condition. the number one hero is facing a political fallout that will probably end in his resignation. top-security inmates from six (or was it seven?? this part was very unclear??) of the most notorious prisons in the country broke free and are on the loose. and presumably there is still a mass-scale rescue and recovery operation underway at Jakku and all of those other cities, and the heroes who aren’t dealing with the prison breaks are probably occupied with that.

basically the short of it is that the torch has been passed on. I don’t know yet how they’re going to deal with that in the story, given the legal and ethical ramifications -- maybe the HPSC will just say “fuck it” and give them temporary full hero licenses, idk. but the inevitable controversy of that aside, this is clearly where the story is leading now. and so what that means, is that without Endeavor or All Might or any of the Old Guard left, it will inevitably fall to the kids to lead the charge for this last stretch of the story. Mirio, Momo, Ochako, Shouto, Katsuki, and all the rest. and Deku.

and that means Deku is going to have to step up. because this is what it’s all been building up to for him. OFA vs. AFO. and so at that point, he basically has to tell the others, because it’s going to be critical for them to understand. at that point it becomes a situation where the danger to them is greater if they don’t know about it, because whatever strategy they end up working out will ultimately need to hinge on OFA as their trump card. they have to know. he has to tell them.

so yeah, basically I’m expecting this to happen pretty soon! it’s past time for his other close friends to be let in on the secret, and it takes some of the pressure off of him and Katsuki as well. and aside from that, it’s basically just all about that trust, baby. Let Deku Have Everyone’s Back And Everyone Have His 2021. manifest that shit, lol.

[alternatefandom]

The Three Faces of Furuya Rei, or: what moral philosophy does Furuya Rei subscribe to?

Furuya Rei is a fascinating character that can be difficult to understand. This is complicated by the fact that he presents three very different faces to us. Our very first impression of him was as the kindly waiter and detective, Amuro Tooru; next we are shown the antagonist, Bourbon, and last, we discover the driving force behind them: the undercover agent, Furuya Rei. These three personas act in a very different way, especially Bourbon, making Rei’s true motives and morality somewhat opaque to us. In this meta I will analyze Rei’s actions and motives in order to discern the true school of morality that he believes in.

There are three major theories of morality; virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontology. However, in this meta I will be brush on ethical egoism as well. Let us first talk about the relevant theories.

Virtue Ethics is first and foremost concerned with character. Here, we judge right and wrong based on whether or not it is virtuous. A person’s action reflects on their character; a virtuous person will do virtuous actions, and vice versa. Therefore, virtue ethics defines virtuous actions as the right action.

Utilitarianism, on the other hand, defines right and wrong based on the consequence of the action. It is concerned with outcomes; in utilitarianism, the end justifies the means. As long as the action results in the greatest good for the greatest number of people, it is right.

Lastly, Deontology defines right and wrong based on what the duty of the subject is. It is concerned with motives; as long as the person was trying to fulfill their duty, then it is right according to deontology. What the duty itself is, of course, subject to argument.

Now out of these three moral theories, which one does Furuya Rei follow?

To analyze this, I will be including materials from the Zero the Enforcer movie as well. This is because in my opinion, we don't actually get much insight into Rei's motives in the manga; we are told what he wants, but we’re not really told why, at least not enough to explain how he justifies his actions for himself. Now let’s get to the analysis itself.

First things first, I think we can safely say that Furuya Rei doesn’t subscribe to virtue ethics. In his debut as Amuro Tooru, in the private eye case, we see him allow Banba, a murder suspect, to destroy exonerating evidence. We also see him create a wrong deduction that almost damned an innocent man. With what we know of his deductive capabilities, as well as the fact that he had all pieces of the evidence and knowledge required to solve the case from the beginning, it is highly implied that he deliberately risked Banba’s freedom just to test Kogoro. Hardly the actions of a virtuous man. It should be noted, however, that in this case, Rei had still maintained control of the situation, thereby allowing him to keep the worst-case scenario from happening; as a PSB member, he would still be capable of exonerating Banba later.

I deliberately did not mention the Detectives’ Nocturne case, the Mystery Train case, as well as the Elementary Teacher Assault case, as I don’t believe that the evidence presented in these cases can conclusively point to Rei’s true intentions. There are always possible alternative interpretations that makes his actions possibly virtuous. However, I will mention the Zero the Enforcer movie. This movie clearly lays out that Rei is definitely not a nice person, and doesn’t mind that other people knows that about him. He deliberately framed Kogoro as a terrorism suspect; fabricated evidence, bugged Conan’s phone, and was generally manipulative. Thus, from the evidence, we can conclusively say that neither manga!Rei nor movie!Rei follow the school of Virtue Ethics.

The second school of ethics we will analyze is utilitarianism. In utilitarianism, the end justifies the means. For Furuya Rei, ‘the end’ would probably be the downfall of the Black Organization, or, taking it further, the safety of Japan and its citizens. I have seen some people take the point of view that Rei had wanted to kill Sherry in the Mystery Train, so that she wouldn’t produce more works that could be used to harm innocents; if this is true, then he would definitely be an utilitarian. However, I’ve argued before that Rei had not intended to kill Shiho and instead had wanted to spirit her to safety, as she is a valuable lead into Elena Miyano’s whereabouts. Therefore, the Mystery Train case should not be taken as evidence that Rei is an utilitarian. 

As there is no evidence that Rei is an utilitarian, one way or another, one could argue that we could take Rei’s willingness to do morally-questionable things as evidence that he thinks it will lead to a better outcome for everyone, if not for one notable case: Akai Shuuichi.

In my opinion, utilitarianism is a very rational and cold moral philosophy; it is a moral school perfectly suited to geniuses, masterminds, and detectives like Rei. However, when it comes to Akai Shuuichi, we see Rei display zero reason. There is no obvious rationale why taking Akai out of the game would result in a better outcome for all, and Rei doesn’t even attempt to explain it; nonetheless, he continues to hunt Akai without any sense of guilt, which implies that he thinks hunting Akai is the correct course of action (note that I don’t necessarily think that Rei wants to kill Akai, despite what he said--more on that later). This implies that Furuya Rei does not necessarily believe in utilitarianism. 

This brings us to the last major ethical theory: Deontology. Deontology is concerned with duty; it takes motive into account more than the actions itself. And Rei has so kindly told us which duty he has dedicated himself to in the Elementary School Assault case.

That’s correct; he’s dedicated himself to his lovely, lovely Japan. Conan said it best:

“I was sure that since he said that to the FBI investigators... those beliefs!”

It becomes even clearer if you look at the Zero the Enforcer movie. There, Rei clearly states what he thought of his job to Kazami.

In other words, our job isn’t always nice or even legal, but we have to finish it because it’s our duty.

If we take the point of view that Rei subscribes to deontology, a lot of his action becomes immediately explainable. He cuts contact with his old friends all to make sure they were safe, but he risks returning Hiromitsu’s cellphone to his older brother because he feels that it’s his duty as Hiromitsu’s friend. Arguably, he hunts Akai Shuuichi out of duty to his fallen friend, and yes, to his country. Akai, after all, was not only involved in Scotch’s death; he’s also operating illegally in Rei’s territory. This would explain why Rei brings PSB agents instead BO agents into the Scarlet Showdown; if Rei intended to kill Akai one way or another, bringing BO agents is definitely the way to do it. This is because bringing PSB means Akai would fall into PSB custody, and there Rei cannot do whatever he likes with Akai; he must answer to his superiors in the PSB. I believe that despite what Akai said, here Rei had only intended to arrest Akai.

So why, then, did he say that he wished to kill Akai, right in front of Okiya Subaru’s face? This brings us to my last theory: it’s because to figure out how to act, Rei aligns each of his three faces to a different moral theory.

Amuro Tooru, quite obviously, follows virtue ethics. He is polite, kind, always helpful, always cheerful. He does not do morally questionable things; he is an upstanding member of society.

Furuya Rei, as we’ve discussed, is a deontologist.  He is dutiful to his friends and country but now he has no friends left so really it’s just his country. His ‘lover’ is Japan itself, and he is willing to do anything--anything--to keep her safe.

And Bourbon? Bourbon would probably loosely follow ethical egoism. It is out of the question for Rei to create an absolutely amoral persona for Bourbon--it would unnecessarily conflict with his deontologist morality. However, to fit in the Black Organization, he needs to create someone who would do terrible things without needing to justify it with ‘duty’ or ‘the greater good’. Someone who wouldn’t just do anything that’s asked of him too, so Rei could reasonably rein Bourbon in. Rei would probably style Bourbon as someone who looks out for his own interests, and only his own, whatever that may be.

And so when Rei wants to hunt down Shuuichi Akai, Bourbon would say that it’s because in his interest to do so--because he bears a grudge against Akai, perhaps, and as an organization member, murdering Akai is the only way to resolve it. Bourbon would investigate Okiya Subaru and corner him, but Rei wouldn’t bring the Organization into their confrontation. Bourbon would threaten Okiya Subaru with death--but Rei wouldn’t pull Okiya’s collar down and condemn him right then and there. Because at the end of the day, the one holding the wheels is Rei, not Bourbon, and whatever he may say, Furuya Rei is a dutiful police officer, and he believes in justice.

[lacependragon]

3, 9, 11, 20, 24?

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

You know what’s really funny? I put... 90% of these in Weight. But let’s talk about one I just. Could not make work. Because the theory is so fucking ridiculous and cracky and didn’t fit Weight.

I wanted to write a scene, for the longest time, where James takes down Jacques and gets the SDC out from him because he finds out that Whitley is biologically his and not Jacques’, and there’s a bunch of legal shenanigans but it all hinges on Whitley being made heir and some other stuff.

And it was supposed to be the midpoint of a really big ass longshot that talked about family and trauma recovery and the whole thing was going to be in Whitley’s point of view.

But god damn man that is a lot of fucking effort.

9.  Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

Longfic. I will write a hundred longfic starts in a year if you let me and I have at least six or seven that have gotten to chapter 4 or so that I started this year and never posted because I went to something else. Do you know how many tens of thousands of words I scrapped in the first half of 2020 writing long fic openers that no one ever saw? It’s wild.

I’m definitely a loose plotter. Not as rigid as some people but not as loose as others. I know my story. I think about it obsessively. I write down everything I can think of. I constantly turn it over and over in my head, trying to work out themes, arcs, development, etc. I’m juggling so many pieces in so many fics and I’m constantly trying to tweak them as close to perfect as I can. But I’m not rigid with it. I change things CONSTANTLY (Hi Weight, SR) and I find it a lot of fun, tbh.

I would love to write more oneshots. But I’m a long writer by nature and it’s hard to get my stories down to that tiny piece when I know I could build them out so much bigger. It’s why I love longshots.

11. What do you envy in other writers?

Descriptions. I would love to write better descriptions of settings, moods, etc., and piece it better into my stories. I have such a hard time remembering settings when I’m working on intense emotional scenes and I really wish I could keep them in mind better. Tyrian’s apartment scene in SR is a scene I spent ages agonizing over because I needed the set-up to be perfect for who and what it was tackling.

I also wish I had a more lyrical style? I feel really blunt and rough at times and I know it’s part of who I am. I just wish my writing was more. Beautiful. Pretty.

20.  Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

So I have this twice in my Inbox, so I’m gonna approach it from two different angles and I’m gonna tackle the meta of Silver Rings in this ask.

So let’s talk Silver Rings meta.

Yang lost her arm in an accident with a bull horned red mustang, as a reference to Adam. Red for his colour, bull horns because he’s a bull, mustang because male horses tend to be kind of aggressive. It was a lot of insurance money to pay for the wreck, and the court case was a nightmare.

Raven had a form of postpartum depression that actually looks more like psychosis. Because of this, her intrusive impulses were almost entirely extremely violent and that’s why she left. Having intrusive thoughts to kill your child because she won’t stop crying is scary, especially when your impulse control is bad on a good day.

Qrow is an artist, specifically a painter, as a nod to his dance-based fighting style in the show. I didn’t think dancing would work for his backstory in this world, but pencils and paper from the dollar store are cheap and easy to steal. It was his way of bringing beauty into the dark parts of his world.

Pietro and Penny are not, in fact, related. However, Pietro did design Mercury’s prosthetics and has met Penny before because of that.

Tyrian and Qrow met when both were in really shitty places. Tyrian was six months sober and seven months clean, and he wasn’t supposed to be a sober buddy yet. However, his parole officer and social worker thought he’d do well with responsibility. Qrow didn’t know this when he met Tyrian, but found out later and never regretted it.

Tyrian is schizophrenic. He’s well medicated and functions decently, but he does have pretty regular hallucinations. Part of why he keeps such weird animals is because he knows they’re good at vibes and if they aren’t freaking out, nothing is wrong. Also, if he ends up in the hospital, they’re okay on their own for a few days, and a dog isn’t.

There are a fuckton of references throughout the story related to Raven and Yang’s canon relationship, and more coming up soon that are meant to mimic their conversation at the bandit camp. I really wanted to push that parallel while showing how it could go different in another world.

If you’re paying close attention, you already know the location of Silver Rings’ big climactic scene.

If you’re paying close attention, you can accurately guess all the major conflicts for the rest of the fic.

Summer is a media consultant. That’s something I never managed to get into the story.

The reason Glynda is a dominatrix is partially her weapon and partially her style.

Hazel is technically a Daddy Dom but he plays other roles. That’s just his official one.

If you pay close attention, you’ll know where Arthur’s storyline is going (not the part related to Tyrian).

That’s all I got.

24.  Would you say your writing has changed over time?

I’ve got a fic from 2013 on my AO3. See for yourself.

But yeah, it’s changed. I’ve gotten a lot denser, a lot better at showing, and a lot less reliant on adverbs and tags. It’s great to see and I think I’ve still got a long way to go.

Thank you!!

[arbitrarygreay]

Soft Power (the play with a musical)

[royalfanficfolio]

#dpxdc#batfam#danny hiding out in the league of assassins au#taking that canonical time young justice destroyed a government facility that was experimenting on and torturing ghosts#and slotting it neatly into dpxdc#danny could have gone home years ago#he had no idea the giw was gone#well who was going to tell him?#the world moves on while you’re away#the bats are very deliberately not asking if danny's an actual ghost#tim is quite aware that some of the giw’s ‘subjects’ were living people who happened to have ghost-like abilities like phase shifting#in any case they want to make clear to danny that it really doesn't matter to them either way#once they have him safely back with them there will be questions though#tim is eager to introduce danny to secret#the legal definition of meta is so loose because it had to include people like superman and martian manhunter#so it uses ‘person’ not ‘human’#and yes some normal humans have abilities outside the normal human range#the justice league were quite adamant during the advisory stage that it had to be as inclusive as possible#if some non-metas get protected by the meta protection laws that’s hardly a bad thing#yes danny’s parents might still be a problem#but without legal backing they’re much less of a threat#and danny has the batfam at his back

I've had a brainworm for a few days now so here me out.

After an accidental reveal gone wrong, Danny is forced to flee the country with both his parents and the giw after him. While he's trying to find some place internationally to settle down, he comes across a secluded complex.

Said complex happens to have access to an ectoplasm run off which Danny is in desperate need of. Though it has been corrupted by whatever the people of the complex have been doing to it, that's no problem for Danny as he can easily purify the portion he takes in to survive.

Deciding this is the perfect place to live off the grid, Danny sets to work figuring out how to blend in. It turns out that's the easy part. With his temporary stint as a ninja, his training with his black belt mom, and his general ghost physiology, he fits in pretty well.

He fits in so well in fact that he is told he'll be training someone one of the head bosses has their eye on. A kid his age.

Basically what follows is Danny accidentally ruining Talia's plans for Jason by unconsciously purifying his corruption and just talking him through his emotions. When Jason gets back to Gotham, he returns without a clouded mentally and realizes just how much Bruce went through after his death.

Instead of unleashing his complicated plan, he quietly takes over the underworld. He loves his father but also knows there are situations in Gotham that require a more firm hand. Jason decides to be a firm hand in his dad's place.

(I imagine he is only revealed on accident yet his reunion with his family is just as dramatic as Under the Red Hood. Tbh it probably has something to do with the joker suddenly going missing.)

Meanwhile back at the League of Assassins, Talia is impressed by Jason's training and is under the impression that his failure in Gotham is due to him getting cold feet at the last second so she puts Danny in charge of Damian's training.

Danny this time takes a more conscious role in ruining the league's brainwashing by challenging Damian's beliefs and teaching him he should use his weapons to protect, not to harm. By the time Damian gets to Wayne Manor, there is significantly less deprogramming that needs to be done.