#and ivor and harper are on the twins side

[batunatu]

I MADE A NEW ONE (⁠•⁠‿⁠•⁠)

template by @stervil

oops

[bunieluv]

ᰔ minecraft story mode deaf jesse au ᰔ

pairing || male jesse x lukas (jesskas)

content warnings || inspiration somewhat taken from a silent voice, this au has themes of bullying, child abuse, self worth issues, and the general undertones of the ‘perfect child’ syndrome.

summary || a love story about independence vs interdependence, and battling self-worth issues as the top student is framed for bullying his deaf classmate, and must find a way to overcome his flaws in order to prove that he is not a bad person. based off of the hc that jesse lost some of his hearing after the formidi-bombs explosion.

information under the cut!

World

Beacon High School is a school filled with students of all different ability and culture. The students of Beacon High School are full of life and believe that everyone should be given equal opportunity, regardless of their backstory.

In this AU, characters from Minecraft: Story Mode take the roles of teachers and students attending this school. Romeo is the headmaster, Xara is the deputy head, Gordon/The Warden is the school secretary, and the Old Order of the Stone are teachers of the different subjects. The new Order of the Stone, the Blaze Rods, the Beacontown townsfolk will be taking the role of the students. The main cast are in Year 12/11th grade, making them 16-17 years old.

In this AU, female Jesse and male Jesse are twin siblings rather than gendered counterparts. Female Jesse is referred to as ‘Jessica’ while male Jesse keeps his name. Ivor and Harper serve as the twins’ father and step mother respectively. Additionally, Jack and Nurm serve as Petra’s adoptive fathers and Soren is a father figure to the Jesse twins, as the ex-husband of their father and one of their primary carers during their childhood.

The plot of this AU focusses on the undertones of the perfect child, Lukas, and how the maltreatment of a child detriments them in their later lives. In the beginning of their academic year these unlikely group of students are sardined together into Mr. Soren’s form group, and then Jesse becomes the target of the Ocelot’s bullying. Lukas’ reputation, despite being the only one who spited the idea of bullying Jesse and abstained, takes the hit for it, and Lukas resolves to regain the trust of Jesse, who had captured his attention. However, now people are standing in his way, and he must face all the worst things about himself for Jesse’s sake.

Jesse’s information

Aged 16. When Jesse was a child, he was involved in a freak accident which damaged his ears and is now medically recognised as deaf, meaning that he has little hearing ability. Jesse was left with some residual hearing after his accident, however this is not a lot and is severely muffled by white noise and tinnitus. It has to be a pretty loud sound in order for Jesse to interpret it, which is why Jesse uses hearing aids to amplify these sound waves to interpret them easier. As a statement yes these hearing aids are worn on his own volition, and in no way a refusal of his right to exist as a deaf person.

Jesse has the ability to speak, as he had learnt how to speak fluently prior to the accident. However, he often prefers non-verbal communication in sign language (most likely to be ASL considering MC:SM would probably be produced somewhere near the USA) as reading lips is only about 30% successful and with the amount of straining he has to do to hear often leaves him feeling fatigued. He feels he is only able to hold conversations with two people max, ergo he tends to hang out in small groups. When Jesse does speak, it is comprehensible and near perfect, though very soft and uncertain.

Jesse’s deafness is not exclusively limited to his hearing loss. There are other side effect that come with his deafness due to the injury in his middle and inner ear. Jesse is constantly seen tripping over, and this is for two reasons; the first reason being that the inner ear damage has caused problems with his balance, and the second is that having to focus so intently on the sounds around him interfered with his ability to walk around carefully. He is also more prone to headaches as a result of his chronic tinnitus, which makes getting rest significantly harder for him than for others.

Jesse reacts more violently to his other senses as a result of losing his sense of hearing. This is why Jesse is often more uncomfortable to scents, and responds to touch more than the average person might.

Jesse’s auditorial challenge posed him some troubles in his life, as it interfered with his way to communicate with a hearing world. Because of this, Jesse was frequently misinterpreted by his classmates and became a victim of ostracism and bullying. Despite this, Jesse has always kept a positive outlook on life, happy to be alive and accepting that his deafness is a part of who he is, and it’s other people that are the problem. Even if his immediate family does not agree with this way of thinking, and are very protective of him and how others treat him.

Jesse is a sweet and compassionate person with an easy going attitude. He is shown to be very forgiving even if it other people would have refused their apology, if they are expressing sincere regret towards their actions. He doesn’t feel that it is necessary for people to treat him differently to others because of his auditorial challenge since he is just as well off as everyone else- his grades are decent and he is able to fluently understand 3 languages (English, Spanish and ASL), so he is quick to dismiss any feelings of pity or concern towards him by projecting the more positive parts of his personality. 

Lukas’ information

Aged 16.

Lukas is the concept of a perfect child. He is polite, respectful and selfless, and is often relied on by students and teachers with his willing he is to help them in his own free time. Additionally, he is academically smart and athletic (notably strong considering he practices archery) which emphasises the positive traits about himself. He is very diplomatic and does not hold people to their old selves, believing that everyone deserves a chance to be happy.

Because of these high expectations placed upon him by other people, Lukas often does not think he is good enough. In his eyes, he is inadequate, and thus he often does not do good things for himself and busies himself with the wellbeing of others, making him very generous. Much unlike Jesse, he internalises and blames himself for the things that happen to himself, rationalising it saying ‘if I had done…instead’. Lukas does not hold grudges towards people, most notably his mother, who he loves quite dearly despite Petra’s family thinking she is cruel. His perfect façade seems to hide his deep insecurities, and it means he treats people politely even if they don’t deserve it.

Lukas was born into a wealthy family, and he really didn’t enjoy it. His father was frequently working and so his mother was the primary carer of him, and she had her twisted beliefs on life. Despite being supportive and nurturing his academic life, Lukas’ mother is manipulative and controlling, and Lukas often feels guilted into abiding by what she wants for him, micromanaging his life and being told that some harmless things he wants to do are way worse comparatively given who he is. This conditioning meant that Lukas had felt powerless and without a sense of self, following what his family wanted for him.

Throughout his life, Lukas has always been academically gifted. He had been moulded into a perfectionistic child, which is why his feelings of inadequacy hit so much harder. Lukas had began to push himself beyond his limits just because his mother was compelling him to, even if she had a pretence of worry towards his health. For a while he had been feeling completely isolated, even if he was the boy that everyone wished they could be.

Lukas didn’t want any of that. He didn’t care about being popular or desirable, he wanted to be a writer. But other plans had been put in place for his future.

Lukas had befriended the Ocelots after saving them from their bullies. He had been surprised when they had looked up to him like a leader— in the most sense, he wanted to be their equal and he wanted to be their friend. Although he did take on a lot of leader like qualities, teaching them alternatives to coping with their stress which are not harmful to themselves. Despite Lukas convincing his mother that the Ocelots were good people, she was still hesitant and suspicious of them, wanting rid of them but having no reason to remove them from Lukas’ life at that moment.