#it does the masquerade and the idea of magic being something harmful to normal people ten thousand times better than certain terf fictions

[erminecore]

If y'all are frustrated by the lack of accessibility in fantasy settings and want to see cool fantasy wheelchairs you should go read Witch Hat Atelier because it aggressively tackles both the idea of visible disability and invisible disability as a concept.

Also it's fucking excellent and one of the most gorgeous manga I've ever read, so that's a plus too.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Lena Retrospective: The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck! or Why Does Lena’s Darkest Hour Have a WACKKKYY Bigfoot Subplot?

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Shadow Into Light, my look back the LIfe and Times of Lena Sabrewing. And we’re almost at the end of season 1. Woo-Ooo!. While i’ll have more season 1 episodes to cover for it’s sister arc, this is the last episode in this arc before the finale.. and i’m happy to repeat that next week will be DUCK WEEK as a result, finsihing up this arc and the Della arcs, as well as dipping into season 2 a bit for Lena’s return to celebrate the finale of this wonderful show. Full disclosure: I didn’t PLAN for it this way, I assumed the show would be ending in April, but sometimes serendipity just works out for you. So pitter pat er, let’s get at er.

 When we last left off Webby went on a wild duck chase for her grandma in England and 87!Webby befriended that version of Magica’s niece and told off a grown woman masquerading as a child because her husband likes being called “Daddy”. When we last left the plot proper though, we learned Lena just wanted to be free, and was willing to do whatever it took, and Magica was getting more abusive and more impatient. And if you thought the end to Jaw$! was pretty sad and dark.... strap in and steel yourself as we take a look at one of the darkest episodes in the series.

The opening sets the stage perfectly as we’re in Scrooge’s Room in the middle of the night, when Lena comes in.. with a knife. 

Naturally she dosen’t have baked goods, but instead is trying to cut the knife from around his neck while Magica won’t shut up while she works and keeps distracting her and BLAMING her for getting distracted. As for the knife it’s glowing and mystic because naturally, Scrooge doesn’t trust just ANY string but a magically woven one to hold his dime. Unlucky for her her girlfriend walks in at the exact moment she’s standing over her idol holding a mystical knife. I don’t think hallmark makes a card for “Sorry I was lying to you for months for my abusive aunt to earn my freedom and then looked like I was about to slit your uncle’s throat. I love you though. “ Yet. 

Scrooge starts to stir so Webby pulls Lena out of there and back to her room... and flashes a lamp on her to interrogate her. Lena is able to bounce back, asking “what were you doing there”. Which NORMALLY wouldn’t last more than two minutes.. but since Webby was there to get Drool samples, maybe she wants to clone him I mean she does know a guy I think the why is something we’d rather not know about, Webby herself was a bit suspcious and Lena uses her starkerish ways to say she’d also gotten into being a Scrooge fangirl. This also allows her to ask about the dime.. but since Scrooge never takes it off, that means they have no access and both Lena and Magica are stuck watching Webby’s long presentation on Scrooge’s life story. I mean personally i’d love to see this in it’s full probably 8 hour glory but I’m not trying to earn my freedom or stuck as a shadow monster. 

It was then when watching the episode this morning.. I was reminded it had a subplot. And the instant I saw Dewey folding Louie’s shirts... I started to piece together it was the bigfoot one. 

As you can tell i’m not a fan of this subplot. It has a good core idea, riffing on “kid takes home sasquatch films” like Cry Wilderness, Big and Harry and of course the one that started it all, Harry and the Hendersons. 

It’s just bogged down by one really obnoxious trait that trips it up and is in the wrong episode entirely. We’ll get to that first scene and the plot as a whole in a moment we just need the setup in the a-story first: Scrooge privately conferring with Beakly, which Magica snoops on. While Lena didn’t get far at all in cutting the rope of his dime, she still left a knick and the fact someone got into his house, let alone his bedroom and got THAT far, means SOMETHING bad is afoot. So while he looks for it he’s putting the dime in the Other Bin for safekeeping. We’ll find out what that is in moment. For now 

Let’s Get This Stupid Sasquatch Plot Over With

We open with Louie having conned Dewey into folding his stuff for the “world laundry folding record”. I mean.. it’s greasy but I gotta respect game here. And it’s not actively harming anyone. Though we do find out from an irate Huey he’s done far worse, if in a hilarious way with Louie’s Kids, his obviously fake charity he uses to get money out of Donald. And so far into it, as Huey hid something he had in the closet and offered to Fix Louie’s stretched out hoodie, the reason he was mad at Dewey, I didn’t get why I hated it before. I wondered why I was so annoyed. Same when Huey while carrying Louie’s hoodies hears his uncle looking for something in the mansion. 

Turns out he’s got a bigfoot hiding in their closet, that he found injured int he woods and brought back and all that good kid finding a mythical creature stuff. Dewey of course loves him on first sight and both want to keep him. But unlike most of these sorts of things where the creature’s damage to the room and what not is played off or the sibling doesn’t know, Louie does see it and isn’t happy about it and only agrees to hide the furry bastard because his brothers blackmail him with his schemes, and refuse to feel sorry for him as the creatures antics continue, including drinking Louie’s special pep and eating his snacks. 

And this is where one of the plots two major issues crops up: The way Dewey and Huey act. Both just ignore any damage wooly foot does, any discomfort to Louie and any obvious downsides of this. Now Dewey being clinginly attached to a majestic creature he found and wanting to keep it? Fits perfectly, and him being mean to louie fits because louie tricked him. Huey however.. is horribly out of character, as while I could see him being charmed at first and not wanting his uncle to hunt his new friend.. he’s not an impractical boy. He’d of tried to get his new friend to the woods first thing because it’s where he’s safest from scrooge and his foot has healed. He’s also a Woodchuck and I can’t imagine the JWG says it’s okay to keep a wild animal person as a pet basically. None of it fits him and makes him into a moron for an episode solely for the plot to work. This still could’ve worked but just have Huey and Louie BOTH get suspicious, Huey later, and find out Tenderfoot is actually Gavin, whose sapient, has a phone and simply is taking advantage of them. it would’ve gone the same way: if they told Dewey , Gavin would kill them, as he threatened to do if louie told his brothers. The Gavin part though is brilliant and a really nice twist I didn’t see coming when I first saw this.  

And it would’ve made the already great climax more interesting as Huey would’ve been forced to use the methods of Louie’s he’d derided to beat a far worse scammer. Instead it’s just Louie but he doesn’t take Gavin’s threats lying down.. and comes up with a clever way to use his scam against him. He shaves Gavin, hides the razor then claims to his brother that not being in the woods means he’s dying or some such thing. So our two idiots and our hero drag them out and while they run into scrooge, Louie still saves the idiots life by manipulating him with a schmaltzy speech and they let him go despite his best attempts to stay, with Louie getting a nice “I win in there”. Overall a bit of a mess with some good ideas, but Huey suddenly taking dum dum juice really drags it down.

So in any other episode this would’ve been fine whatever just mildly obnoxious. What makes it really,  unintentionally obnoxious.. is it’s in the middle of a tense, dark, horror story that dives into the depths of Lena’s soul and ends on a really horrifying note. Case in point Louie shaves a bigfoot and gets his victory over his nemesis.. after an utterly spellbindingly horrific nightmare by Lena, easily the most terrifying moment in the entire show. Followed up with a shaved bigfoot. 

Now I could buy Disney simply forced them to do this to keep things light... except Frank’s been pretty upfront about the production process, how Disney has treated him, what they’ve said no on. So if it had been something they were forced to do, he would’ve said it. No this is just not reading the room and not thinking things through and an otherwise stellar episode suffers for it.They could’ve waited till season 2 for it, they didn’t, and this was the result. It dosen’t ruin the rest of the episode it’s too good for it, but damn if it dosen’t create mood whiplash so severe I need a neckbrace. 

The Good Part

So back at the plot anyone actually cares about, we found out what the “other bin” is when Lena asks Webby: While the Money bin is for well, money and precious keepsakes, the other bin is the stuff too dangerous to keep out in the world. And this is the guy who kept a mystical gold eating dragon, a pirate ghost, and a medusa gauntlet in his garage, and we’ll learn after this ep also keeps a giant golden aztec golem in there. NONE of that was deemed dangerous enough to put in the other bin. So Webby is understandably hesitant.. and it gets a bit unsettling when Lena manipulates her into it. While she has in the past.. she usually just nudged Webby into something she’d do anyway at worst, or showed her an r-rated movie or something harmless. While she did use her as an in she clearly cares.. so it shows how horrifically desperate she’s got she’s willing to pressure her into going into Scrooge’s most dangerous and secure location, pointing out this may be her only chance to see the Dime. 

So she reluctantly agrees, and the two head into the garage. Turns out Scrooge keeps all his junk here for more reason than just shoving it wherever it’d go, as the entrance to the other bin is hidden here. The statue that gave Manny his head is actually a clue towards the painting hiding the second bin, which itself requires one of those things used to hold up ropes and such like you’d see at a movie theater... god I miss movie theaters.. I mean watching stuff in the comfort of home is very nice, but it was nice getting out, making a day of it. I mean their around, but I really don’t want to go till one till more vaccinations have happened and it’s a lot safer to go. Wait what were we talking about? Oh right gay ducks going into a horrifying nightmare vault. But yeah the theater thingy is the key, it unlocks the entrance and our heroines head inside. 

In contrast to the modern, buisnessy welcoming bin, the other bin is basically one giant vault/prison, with everything in it securely locked inside identical doored rooms. It’s genius as it is simple: Only 6 people have likely ever had access to this place: Scrooge, Beakly, Gyro, Duckworth and MAYBE the twins. Even Della and Donald being allowed down here is an unknown. The non-scrooge people are only because someone besides him needs to maintain it, keep any creatures fed, that sort of thing and he’d only trust his butler and his housekeeper, who are also both extraordinarily badass, to do so. Gyro is because someone needed to design the cells. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Quackfaster was a 7th since season 3 casts her as Scrooge’s magic expert and he’d likely need specific runes for specific cells. He’d want as few people down here as possible, and even fewer knowing. I’m sure Bradford knew, and i’m also certain it’s the one thing he never quibbled about the expense as while he hates what Scrooge stands for and tried to curb his “chaos” as much as possible.. this is doing exactly what Bradford likes: locking it away where it can’t hurt anybody. Plus quibbling about it might make Scrooge want to show it off to him and that’s.. that's’ a whole lotta nope in a 2 pound bag. 

So for once Webby is very hesitant and very cautious, though naturally Magica points out a door.. and Lena stupidly follows her advice as she knows her “aunt” is impulsive and has no regards for her safety. What did she think was going to happen? They instead find a unicorn.. or rather it’s angry murderous cousin the Sword Horse, which naturally tries goring them. I’d go with Spear Horse, but semantics. Point is Webby is soon tackled by the thing and Magica just wants to let her die. As seen before the tension between Magica and Lena has hit a breaking point: Magica is fed up with Lena’s clear feelings for webby and caring more about her than the mission.. while Lena is fed up with Magica not listening to her, respecting her as sentient being and dismissing her out of hand instead of listening to her often very valid criticism. So Lena naturally ignores her and throws her the knife, which Webby uses to get the Sword Horse back in it’s pen. And then wonders why her girlfriend has  glowing painstakingly crafted magic knife. Whoops. Webby also wants to leave but Lena convinces her to keep going. but it’s also very clear that Webby’s getting more and more reluctant and i’ts very hard to watch. You can’t blame Lena for wanting to be free of Magica: she dosen’t see her as a person, and dosen’t value her life. But it’s still hard to watc her have to manipulate the only person that loves her and do so so.. effectively. It’s easy to imagine Lena’s done this dozens of times to other people.. but not to someone she actually CARES about. 

Webby DOES figure out how the rooms work though: each one is labeled by the year Scrooge caught it. So she assumes one room she fine is the dime.. and Lena of course runs in and slams the door shut... they’ve found it. So we then get to the most terrifying moment of the series. With victory in her grasp magica roars for Lena to claim the dime, filling the room and Lena with shadow with Lena seemingly disolving.. until Magica is restored or at least partially, still a shadow. Magica has just one thing for her.. and Lena’s reactoin is terrified.. and says oh so much in just one expression it’s VERY clear Lena fears she’s about to die... if she’s lucky. Magica’s been so verbally abusive, tearing her down constantly, manipulating her constantly.. why WOULD Lena expect anything good? Why would she expect anything other than pain or death? So a hug is a surprise.. as is Webby who assumes she’s being attacked... and is clearly heartbroken that’s not the case and runs for Scrooge when Magica admits the truth... only for Magica to seemingly kill her, turning her into a doll resembling the original Webby

Yeah at this point it’s obvious something’s up.. but before we can get to the natural reveal at the end of this horror show, Lena demands Magica change her back... only for a fight to naturally ensue with Magica rubbing the way Lena’s treated Webby in her face: How she manipualted her, lied to her and used her. Even if it was for more noble reasons.. she never told her any of this or tried to and is now directly responsible for her death. She’s a monster.. and then Lena’s amulet activates.. and seemingly finishes the job. 

Then Lena wakes up. This was simply one of SCrooge’s artifact, one Webby mentioned earlier off hand and Webby rescues her. It was all a nightmare.. easy to see given Webby was seemingly killed or turned into a doll at points.. but besides making Lena realize how while not as bad as her aunt, she ahsn’t been great.. it also gives us a painful look into her head and how she sees both Magica and Webby. With Magica.. it’s again VERY clear Magica verbally abuses her, depersons her and is in general a horrifiingly relastic depection of a domestic abuser. But it’s also telling Magica hugs her... while Lena didn’t expect it, this is all her subconcious mixed with a magical cursed artifact, it’s clear that deep down one of the things she wants most.. is for Magica to LOVE HER. 

That is just... it hurts so much.  She just wants a Mom.. and even then her subconcious can’t give her THAT because it knows the truth. Granted the nightmare thing might of had something to do with it, but still, the fact is deep down she knows Magica dosen’t care about her but she WANTS her to. As with Webby, she fears Magica is right, that all her gaslighting has had an effect and Webby would run away the second she found out. When as we’ll learn.. that’s not true at all. She’s deeply hurt... but she still belivies in her. But Lena can’t even see that. She’s been beaten down so much by someone constnatly telling her no one will ever love her she belivies it herself and all her mind and the dreamcatcher can do is pummel her over and over again with what she feels about herself, what she’s KNOWN about how she treats webby even if she had no way out otherwise, how wrong it’s felt. Just holy shit it’s a lot to take in. 

But all this trauma has made Lena realize she truly does love Webby and this isn’t worth it.. she’ll find some other way out or figure out something, for now their leaving. She’s not dying for this.. not for her. They happen to run into Scrooge who, due to the WACKY BIGFOOT SUBPLOT THAT HAPPENED RIGHT AFTER THE ABOVE SCENE, no I will not let that go even going back to Frank’s twitter asks he outright said it was their darkest plot paired with one of their most insane, he knew what he was doing. Turns out cleverly he kept the Dime in vault one. As he puts it “They never think to check the first one”. Smart. He also keeps his worry room down here. Just a note I wanted to mention. 

He does chide them, and Lena takes the full fall.. but suprisingly he dosen’t ban her from his home or anything, he just asks they be honest and would’ve gladly showed the dime off to them both if they’d just asked. Once Scrooge and Webby walk off far enough Magica berates her again..but Lena is done. She’s realized from her own horrifying nightmares that NO amount of freedom is worth what Magica will get out of this, that her own soul isn’t worth the death of the one person she cares about: Webby will fight her and she might not make it. She loves her more than she fears Magica. And even if it means loosing Webby.. she knows who can stop him. Unfortunately.. this is not a happy ending as Magica simply takes full control. And now has Scrooge’s full trust. 

Final Thoughts: This episode is one half a masterpiece. The parts with Lena are to this day, as we approach the very last episode, some of the show’s finest writing and Lena’s nightmare is easily the darkest scene in the series, and only not the most gutwrenching.. because we’re getting to that next week. It finishes the first leg of her character arc, with her selfishness all gone, and the only thing she wants is Webby’s hapiness. Granted that leads to a whole nother character arc over her season 2 episodes, but we’ll get there. Point is she’s realized her manipulations are wrong and not worth the cost, and that she’ll never get anything good out of Magica. Freedom.. will take just a bit longer. It’s eerie to watch, uncomfortable as Lena sinks to her lowest point before climbing out of it, and with a very tense atmosphere the whole time, the bin having a smothering uncomfortableness as we know there’s tons of horrible things here.. but we don’t know what. 

So on it’s own it’d be one of the series best episodes, and the plot itself is still one fo the series best.. but it’s weighed down by one of the series worst plots. Still tame compared to a lto of other series worst moments but being paired with something so dark and excellent really shows how fucking stupid this plot was and made it that much more grating. It just clashes badly. Thankfully the crew did learn from this fiasco to the point we got one of the series best episodes “Escape from the Impossibin!”. That one seemingly has two light enough plots, Scrooge, Louie and Della escaping from the bin and Webby stalking the boys, but in a comedic ic still messed up fashion.. but both take a sharp left at just the right time as to not clash: the full implications of what Webby’s doing and her physical fight with Bentina happen around the same time Scrooge breaks down and confesses he’s scared he can’t win this time. The episode gets really dark in the second half but it eases into it and slowly makes it’s way to it, building to it with some laughts to disarm it. But stuff like robo scrooge or the timeloop room, or the timeloop room, or the timeloop room, or the oh thank god i’ts broken. That stuff isn’t SO wacky or out of place that it detracts from the other plot. They compliment each other. Here it’s just two plots that don’t work together at all joined together for some reason.  So yeah overall a very mixed bag of an episode and if you do want to watch or rewatch it.. just skip the bigfoot subplot> it’s not worth it. 

Next Time on Shadow Into Light: It’s all come down to this. Magica finally ges what she wants. The Shadow War is Night.. but before I can tell you that story we have a bit of ground to cover so..

Next on this Blog: The family minus Beakly ends up in Greece. Dewey is forced to deal with his fears about his mom, Scrooge is forced to deal with his old rival Zeus, and Donald is forced to deal with an unwanted admirerer. Spanikopita!

If you liked this review, follow for more, feel free to contribute to my patreon, and feel free to commission a review of your own. Until the next rainbow, it’s been a pleasure. 

[rohad93]

Moonlit Masquerade: Ch 11

Amity allows herself to be led out onto the dance floor and takes hold of one of her date’s hands, the other on her shoulder while their other arms rests on her hip.

If she’s honest, Amity doesn’t expect much. She’s been forced to dance with the children of other wealthy families at these kinds of things before, and while their technical dancing is always superb, it always feels so stiff and wrong. 

She never had, nor ever would have chemistry with them, like she never had with anyone at dancing, except Luz. Again she feels guilty at the thought, right until they start to move.

Luz smiles as she leads them across the dance floor in quick, smooth steps. She could dance pretty well if she said so herself, but she might have also been fitting in some formal practice with Lillith the last two days. Unlike Eda, Lillith is an exacting taskmaster of a teacher, but she won’t deny she learned a lot and moderately well in such a short period of time. 

Amity is looking at her with quiet wonder as they gracefully spin across the floor and Luz grins at her. They don’t need to say much of anything, they seem to be in perfect sync and Amity wouldn’t know what to say even if she did.

The tempo picks up and they follow suit, feet barely touching the floor as they glide around the room.

Luz is deliriously happy at the way they fit together and just the chance to touch Amity without her freaking out or tossing food halfway across a room. 

She loosens her grip on Amity’s waist and she takes the hint, letting go of her shoulder as she spins her away, the skirt of her dress billowing up around her knees before she’s tugged back into her partner’s arms with a flourish that makes her grin.

Their steps are effortless and she feels lighter than she has in a long time. 

She’s not even vaguely aware that people have started watching them or some other couples have moved out of their way. Right now, they have eyes only for each other. 

“Who is that with, Mittens?” Edric asks his twin as they watch the two girls twirl effortlessly around the dance floor. 

“Dunno… but I have a pretty good idea.” She smiles but says nothing else and Edric hums at his sisters’ unusual quiet on the matter. if Emira isn't telling she must have a good reason.

The song is nearing its end, building to a crescendo when the unthinkable happens.

The high polished floor has chosen this moment to make itself known.

Amity knows what happens the exact moment it does. 

She slips.

The heel of her shoe begins to slip forward out from under her and she braces herself for the impact as she falls backward.

It never comes.

Luz sees it happening too and acts with lightning reflexes gained from years of being a klutz. 

Just as Amity begins to fall backward she wraps her arm around her waist and twists them around, redirecting the momentum and straightens out their connected hands, bringing her to a sudden stop just as the song finishes and to the rest of the party, it appears they have just performed the most amazing dip in the history of dancing. 

Amity blinks up at her with wide eyes, their noses almost touching as she’s held aloft and Luz grins and winks before pulling her back to stand.

Several people clap and whistle at the performance and Luz smiles nervously, giving a little bow before they scurry off the dance floor.

“Are you okay?” she asks Amity quietly. 

“F-fine, I’m fine…,” she says, but her heart is pounding in her chest.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Luz asks head cocked.

“Oh, yes, thank you.” she smiles and Luz grins before trotting off to the refreshment table.  

Amity takes the moment alone to try and bring her heartbeat back under control, hand pressed to her chest.

Her fingers brush the brooch, pinned her dress and her heart flutters.

Stars, she's got to get herself under control.

"Here ya go!" 

She jerks when her date has returned and is holding a glass of punch.

"Thanks…" she takes it and their fingers brush.

"Do you like it?" she suddenly asks and Amity is confused for a second before she realizes that she means the brooch, she must have seen her playing with it.

"It's beautiful, you really shouldn't have." She reaches up, fingers brushing the gemstone.

Luz shrugs, smiling.

"When I saw it I thought of you," she explains like it's the most obvious answer in the world, her brown eyes shine in the light of the fire from a nearby sconce and they take on a molten glow.

Amity swallows thickly.

"Thank you, for all of it. The flowers and the tart… it really made my day." She smiles.

"I saw you eating it at lunch," she admits. "I'm glad it made you happy." She smiles shyly as she shuffles back and forth from foot to foot and suddenly Amity is reminded of another brown-eyed girl who can't stay still and instantly feels bad for thinking of Luz, especially when she's having such a good time here with this sweet girl in front of her that she knows likes her.

"Can I ask you something?" 

"Sure!"

"How did you know about the tarts?" she asks. She's been wondering for days now.

"Oh…," she hums, trying to decide if she should say. She doesn't think there's any harm in it. "Emira mentioned it one day, while we were talking." 

That answered one question but gave rise to several more.

"Are you an illusion track student?" 

"Nope" she pops the 'p' with a playful grin.

"Do we have classes together?"

"Maybe," she drawls, eyes twinkling. Amity finds herself smiling back. So that's how it was going to be.

"What track are you in?" she asks instead.

"Impatient aren't we, Miss. Blight?" She sidesteps the question with a coy smile and again familiarity is tugging at the back of Amity's mind.

Normally she'd be annoyed at the avoidance of her questions but she’s intrigued.

"You're not going to tell me anything are you?" She rests her free hand on her cocked hip and her date only continues to smile. 

Luz is having too much fun with this. 

"Depends on the question, It is a masquerade, ya know?" she teases. 

Amity hums thoughtfully to herself as she tries to think of a question that couldn't identify her date but will give her some information. 

Before she can think of something the current song playing comes to an end and in a puff of smoke her siblings have appeared again on the dais. 

"If we might have everyone's attention for a moment," Edric begins.

"We're going to play a little game," Emira finishes. 

"What's going on?" Luz asks and Amity shakes her head. Whatever her siblings are up to, she has not been informed of. 

Looks like they had decided to take a chance on their parents finding out and have gone off-script. She's not at all surprised.

Her siblings just can't contain themselves at times. It's why they're always in trouble… she definitely doesn't like the impish grin on the twins' faces, she knows it all too well.

She grabs her date’s hand and she looks at her questioningly.

"We should go…" she tugs her away from the dance floor and toward another set of doors.

"What, why?" Luz blinks but allows herself to be drug through the doors out onto a large porch with a short stone wall enclosing it that overlooks Blight manors, large and immaculate backyard, which is bathed in bright blue moonlight.

"Trust me, whatever they've planned is not going to go well." She rolls her eyes. As if to punctuate her words there is suddenly a loud commotion from inside.

"You're probably right…," Luz mutters, looking back in the direction of the party over her shoulder.

Amity leads them over to a large patio set and seats herself in one of the chairs.

Luz opts for hopping on top of the stone wall to face her and Amity smiles.

"You're really not going to tell me anything about yourself are you?" She asks once they're settled.

"I'll tell you anything you want that doesn't tell you who I am," is her reply.

"Oh, how bout we play twenty questions?" she asks excitedly.

"What's that?" 

"It's a game, we just take turns asking each other questions," She says.

"Okay."

"Okay,...um…" Luz taps her chin thoughtfully, wracking her brain. "Favorite color?" She settles on.

"Pink, but I feel like you might have known that," Amity answers, giving her date a sly look.

"I might have had a guess." She shrugs. "Your turn."

Amity hums thoughtfully. Talking of siblings...

“Do you have any siblings?” she finally chooses.

“Naw, only child.” 

“I can’t even imagine what that’s like…,” Amity huffs with a rueful smile, glancing across the lawn as the sounds of chaos inside rages on. 

“Kind of quiet, boring.”

Amity blinks, gaze going back to her companion.

“What about your parents?” 

“It’s just me and my mom, and she tries, but she works all the time, so usually I’m on my own.” Luz shrugs, frowning. She hasn’t ever really talked to anyone about this before. Especially not her mom, it would only make her feel bad.

Amity hadn't ever really thought much about what her life would be like if she were an only child, having to carry all the weight of her parents' expectations. It probably would be kind of lonely too.

"My parents are usually gone too… but it's probably for the better," she mumbles the last part, never having intended to give it voice.

Luz wants to ask but she remembers what Willow said about Mr and Mrs Blight not being the most affectionate, so it might be a sore spot for her crush. She chooses to ignore it, for now. 

"You asked two questions so now I get to ask two," she says instead.

"I guess that's fair…" Amity nods.

"Why did you choose the abominations track?" 

"My parents" Amity shrugged. "Abomination magic is one of the hardest to learn, so it's the most prestigious…," she trails off.

Luz screws up her mouth, sensing a theme and decides she wants to stay clear of any topics that might involve the Blight parents.

"How come you dye your hair?" as soon as the question leaves her mouth she knows it's the wrong thing to ask.

Amity is making a face, lips pursed.  

She's quiet for a long few minutes and Luz is sure her question is going to go unanswered until Amity finally speaks.

"My mom makes me."

Luz can't win for losing it seems…

They're alone on the porch, and for reasons she can't explain she feels safe enough to talk about this with the girl sitting in front of her.

"She likes me and the twins to match, so I have to dye it green." she's pointedly not looking at Luz, who bites her tongue;hard.

She wants to say so many things, like how wrong that is, and if Amity doesn't want to color her hair she shouldn't have to, but she doesn't, because she realizes, for once, this is a situation out of her depth. As with her own mom forcing her to go to a boring summer camp to try and make her a little more normal. 

Living with Eda the last almost two months had given her more autonomy than she's ever known before, but Eda isn't her mom, and while she takes care of her, she's more like a wacky aunt, who lets her do things her mother would probably have a stroke over. So sometimes she forgets that they’re kids, and subject to the whims of their parents.

Luz tries to overlook it by knowing that her mom just wants what's best for her, even if she doesn't like it, but it doesn't feel that way with Amity and Mrs. Blight, but Luz knows enough to know that she doesn't know enough to say anything about it; so she doesn't.

Instead she says: "I bet your brown hair is really pretty." 

Which seems to be the right thing to say if the way Amity is now looking at her is any indication.

She smiles and reaches up to brush some free strands of hair away from her face. The pink of her cheeks not entirely hidden by her mask.

"Thanks"

Amity shared something that Luz thinks is probably personal, so it only seems right to share something back.

"My mom made me go to this boring summer camp to try and make me more normal," she says.

"Normal?" Amity's eyes narrow behind her mask. 

"Yeah, at my old school everyone thought I was weird, so I didn't have any friends and kept getting in trouble for being… a lot." She shrugs.

“Weird how?” 

“I just didn’t like the things other kids liked, or I guess actually the stuff I like is weird to them. I made a model of a griffin and everyone freaked out about the spider breath…” 

“But they do have spider breath, that's anatomically correct…”

“I know, right?” Luz threw up her hands. “Then I auditioned for the school play…” She tells the story and Amity is trying to contain her laughter behind a hand.

“It was just some sausages!” She stuck out her tongue. “But apparently my death scene was ‘disruptive and overly dramatic’.” she finger quotes with an annoyed look.

“That’s rather tame for a play at Hexside, last year the play lead was eaten by a griffin.” 

“Yikes…”

“They got him back… eventually.” She makes a face.  

“So what you’re saying is don’t audition for any of the school plays?” Luz laughed.

“Not unless being eaten by a griffin sounds appealing to you.” She smirked. 

“Noted” Luz holds up a finger.

They sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

“You must have been lonely…” Amity breaks the quiet and Luz looks at her questioningly. “Not having any friends or siblings and your mom is always gone…,” she says peering sadly at the girl across from her. 

Luz looks down at her feet as she kicks them back and forth, probably scuffing the backs of her brightly polished shoes as they hit the stone wall she’s sitting on.

“Yeah…,” she says quietly, glancing back up to see those bright gold eyes looking at her and she taps her fingers on the cold hard stone beneath them nervously. “It was pretty lonely,” she admits. 

“Are you still lonely?” Amity asks.

Slowly Luz shakes her head.

“Not anymore.”  she smiles, and it’s more subdued than any of the other bright smiles of grins Amity has seen this evening but it has an undeniable sincerity to it that makes her smile back.

“We should probably head back inside…,” she finally says after a while and when she’s noticed that the commotion inside has been replaced with quiet music.

“Ah, right!” She vaults off the wall and lands with a quiet thump before offering Amity her arm. “Shall we?” she smiled in what she hoped was charming. She’s not sure if she pulled it off or not by the way Amity huffs a laugh at her, but she slips her arm through hers regardless.

“Lead the way.” she teases and Luz grins and even in the dark, it’s blinding.

[svynakee]

Mulan (2020)’s idiotic cultural appropriation of chi is really stupid

Qi is a real thing. Not in the way that oxygen, or electromagnetic waves, are real. You cannot find an atom of qi. You cannot measure qi with a device. Qi is real the way romance, or luck, are real. And in the same way that the romance most people experience isn’t the same romance that is depicted in movies of passionate, melodramatic, wild love, the qi in wuxia and other genres is not the qi experienced in real life.

Now, when it comes to romance movies, the concept of love at first sight does not need to be established. It is accepted that there can exist, in the setting of the story, an unseen powerful force that drives strangers together on the whims of fate. There doesn’t need to be a professor pointing at a blackboard explaining the mechanics of destiny, and the evolution of true love, for an audience to willingly accept that love at first sight can be real for the sake of the story. In this way, it is unnecessary for there to be a martial arts master in every story that uses qi to explain what qi is, why it exists and how humans have learned to harness it.

However, the individual story’s take on qi should be established. If there are organised, respected, powerful sects teaching students to use qi, then assumptions can be made about how society views qi, how developed the study of qi is, the place of qi users in this world. If qi users are almost mythical and tend to hide in seclusion, assumptions can be made. If the emperor’s strongest generals proudly use qi in battle, assumptions can be made. If a teacher cautions against improper usage of qi because it can result in both physical and mental harm to the practitioner, assumptions can be made. And even if nobody bats an eye at the fact that the duke’s eldest son and the third imperial prince are doing flying leaps across rooftops on market day, then assumptions can be made about qi, such as ‘using qi is so common that the price of cabbage is more interesting than watching someone doing magic parkour’.

Simply saying ‘qi exists and is for warriors’ does a poor job of worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is important because it sets the stage, gives context to the stakes, lends weight to the protagonist’s struggles. What does Mulan (2020) tell us about…’chi’? One important thing to note is that in Disney’s Mulan (2020), chi is referred to as a skill; ‘he has strong chi’, ‘he has a talent for soccer’. In Chinese works, qi is the energy, the skill is qigong, which is qi (air) + gong (effort). A martial artist therefore has strong qi, or skill in qigong. They are not skilled in qi. In the following points, I will be discussing Disney’s idea of chi, so I will use their terminology.

Only men can use chi, but chi is also available to women.

Not being true to yourself poisons your chi.

Chi is for warriors, implying that women cannot be warriors (this is actually uncommon in Chinese wuxia stories, more common in historical ones where QIGONG AND WITCHES DO NOT EXIST).

The existence of a woman with chi powers is unusual and a cause for alarm, but not unusual enough that the Emperor dismisses the idea after hearing ONE REPORT FROM A RANDOM SOLDIER.

Those in the Imperial army are trained, briefly, to use chi – this is shaky because I think the commander talks about how chi can be used, and Honghui’s compliment to Mulan implies that her usage of chi is what makes them equals, meaning Honghui can also use it.

People recognise that chi allows humans to do super gymnastics and have enhanced reflexes, enough that when the villagers see a young Mulan doing these things, they are freaked out. Or the ancient Chinese really hated backflips.

Despite women using chi being so taboo, Mulan’s father decided to teach his daughter chi just because she was born with a high midichlorian count- I mean, high chi. When she displays chi abilities in front of other villagers, her mother gets angry and tells him to stop teaching her. Yet Mulan still retains her chi proficiency into adulthood, meaning either her father continued to teach her, or chi mastery lasts for a lifetime. In that way, using chi is a bit like riding a bicycle.

Rourans can use chi to run up walls, but Mulan’s friends are only shown to do this very briefly near the end of the movie, with normal Imperial soldiers failing to use this ability.

The Emperor of China is a proficient chi user. His chi lets him use drapery as weapons (actually a common technique in wuxia, the idea being that qi is personal energy and a skilled practitioner can channel their energy into any object, giving them sharp edges or huge kinetic force).

When a woman can use chi, she is a witch. And this is where this becomes HILARIOUS. Because there IS a witch in Mulan (2020).

Xian Lang is a witch.

In her introductory scene, Xian Lang is shown POSSESSING A MAN, her physical form completely disappearing as she does this. She then nails two long range kills using throwing stars and engages in melee combat, easily defeating Imperial guards despite being outnumbered. She is later shown to turn into a bird, or a large swarm of bats. She never turns into multiple birds or a single bat.

Xian Lang was an outcast as a young girl because of her chi. This is why she joined the Rourans, despite being Chinese (as evidenced by her name). She believes that Bori Khan will make a world where girls like her, born with strong chi, will not be outcasts.

Bori Khan treats Xian Lang horribly, being prejudiced against her gender and dismissing her strength. The Rourans in general also hate her for being a witch.

Xian Lang saw through Mulan’s disguise easily and also identifies that she has strong chi.

Oh and Chinese stories rarely have witches, Xian Lang should’ve been an nugui, kind of like an evil spirit or demoness but from Chinese folklore.

Here’s the thing that I find the funniest about the world Mulan (2020) has created.

Women should not be allowed to use chi. It has given all the proof for this rule to exist, and none to dissuade me from agreeing with it. Because the movie gives us two women with strong chi. Mulan, who actively suppresses her chi, and presumably only learns to use it during her training with the army. So, she is a chi beginner. The other woman is Xian Lang, who is immensely strong despite not looking much older than Mulan. She is probably the strongest character in the story, and definitely a chi master. The only other contenders for the title of strongest chi – not gender restricted – are the Emperor and the Commander. I believe the Emperor is stronger because Bori Khan lures him into a trap and still loses men trying to capture him. He restrains the Emperor with a ton of thick ropes. This guy is terrified of the Emperor and from the few times we see the Emperor fight? I don’t blame Bori Khan at all.

And yet the Emperor never possesses people. He doesn’t turn into a bird, or a swarm of bats, even when these would have FREED HIM AND SAVED HIS COUNTRY. Notably, none of this is ever stated as being against chi law. None of these abilities are stated to be the result of evil experimentation, forbidden techniques or any other taboo method. In the worldbuilding of Mulan (2020), Xian Lang’s chi is only evil because she is evil. And she is only evil because she is a woman with strong chi.

Mulan is a woman with strong chi.

The implication, the weird mess that Mulan (2020) has made, is that All Women With Strong Chi Become Witches. And men CANNOT become witches. Men cannot possess others. Men cannot shapeshift. Men can possibly learn to use throwing stars, but this is debatable. Women can not only do all these things, women are FATED to do so. If a woman is born with strong chi she becomes a witch.

And I don’t blame the ancient Chinese for wanting to suppress witchcraft! It looks hecking dangerous! They can possess anyone. They can break into secure spaces by shapeshifting. Sure, it’s not ethical to deny women access to chi because they could potentially become supervillains, but I can see why they went to that conclusion. The movie does nothing to address this. Mulan doesn’t vow to teach girls to use chi for good. But that’s FINE, because Xian Lang only became evil because of sexism, which is solved now, so cue the happy ending.

Even disregarding how the message of the movie is “girls get bullied for being born weird unless they prove themselves worthy of basic respect”, what is this WORLDBUILDING. Is Mulan in danger of poisoning her chi again and becoming a witch? If chi is for warriors, does that mean civilians can’t use chi? What if a farmer is born with strong chi, do we exile him until he becomes a warlock for the Rourans? How often are girls born with chi and how many of them suppress it correctly? Are they killed if they fail? Do they just join a circus and masquerade as acrobats?

Disney, chi is not a magic you can just throw around! It’s not bibbidi-bobbidi-boo! If you have a magical world, you need to teach the audience about the magical world. INSTEAD OF JUST POINTING. AT ANOTHER CULTURE. AND SAYING “THIS IS REPRESENTATION AND IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS TAKE IT UP WITH THEM”. Yes, qi is part of my culture! CHI. IS. NOT. Its your abomination, stop using OUR STORIES and OUR TRADITIONS as a shield for YOUR SHODDY, LAZY, IDIOTIC WRITING.

Anyway all they had to do was not add ‘chi’ and have Mulan doing normal martial arts for fun or something. Just make her a normal tomboy. Sometimes girls like sport it doesn’t have to be because they were born with baseball magic.

[stillness-in-green]

Changeling: The League (3/3)

Bonus Miscellanea!  A sampler round of various other villains and some AU-of-the-AU versions of the story and characters, including some alternate takes on characters using other game lines from the World of Darkness.  

This post is the last one I have in mind for the concept, but I hope everyone who was curious enough to read them enjoyed them.  There’s some fun stuff in this post in particular, I think--the Word of Darkness really is a very versatile setting.  Find the explanations and the League of Villains here, the follow-up with the Meta Liberation Army here, or just hit the jump for the bonus material.

THE MINIONS

All for One’s direct loyalists and followers.  All are dual-kithed or otherwise eyebrow-raising in kith/seeming combination, and all have a high enough Wyrd that their kith abilities are starting to evolve--serving AFO does have its benefits.  With AFO imprisoned back in Faerie and the cycle stalled out, AFO’s followers are finding themselves facing an unclear future, and so each is having to come up with what they want to do going forward.  Mostly want Tomura to come back and get things moving again, having little sense that there is a world out there that’s more “real” than the one they currently inhabit.

Kurogiri

Type: Palewraith Darkling, Chatelaine dual kith.  Once a caretaker for Tomura, he opts to find Tomura out in the real world in hopes of resuming that directive.  When Tomura does not show even a shred of recognition, Kurogiri opts to set up a bar in the local Hedge, making himself “available.”  

Mantle: Winter, season of secrecy.  Has a servant’s circumspectness with a loyalist’s desire to keep his secrets, as well as a deep, very old melancholy that even he doesn’t really remember the reason for anymore.  

Contracts: Fleeting Winter I, Sorrow-Frozen Winter I-III, Dream I-V, and Smoke I-IV.  For Smoke, he has the old 4-dot Smoke-stepping clause rather than the more modern Murkblur, which is something of a tell regarding his true age.

 Ujiko

Type: Chirurgeon Darkling, which shouldn’t actually be possible by the categorizations as the fae understand them.  He’s been in AFO’s hands for a long time, though.  Current fear: what’s going to happen to the realm if the cycle continues to stall?  Gears can only grind against one another for so long before something explodes!

Mantle: Autumn.  A mad scientist with a deep appreciation for breaking things open to find out how they tick.

Contracts: Artifice I-III, Shade & Spirit I-IV, Spellbound Autumn I-III, and Goblin Delayed Harm III.

 Gigantomachia

Type: Stonebones Elemental, Gargantuan dual kith.  AFO’s most loyal monster.  Would have tried to find Shigaraki sooner, but he’s far too removed from the human he once was to be able to find his way through the Hedge without aid.  Probably spends the first few parts of the story giving All Might trouble in Faerie.  

Mantle: Courtless.  Has no emotional affinities that don’t track back to All for One.  

Contracts: Oath & Punishment I-V, Communion (Earth) I-III, and Stone I-V.  Like Geten, a close replica of his canonical powerset.

OTHER VILLAINS 

Muscular: Bloodbrute Ogre.  Ex-gladiator; current terror.

Moonfish: Gristlegrinder Ogre.  Current cannibal; also current terror.

Mustard: Blightbent Elemental.  Looks cuter because he doesn’t have to wear the gas-mask to protect against his own fumes.

Stain: Razorhand Darkling, give or take a Pischacha dual kith.  Broken very deeply by Arcadia from the strict and upright man he once was, but Lost society was pretty much created to provide a safe haven for that kind of damage.  A Summer Court enforcer of some notoriety.  

Gentle Criminal: Windwing Beast.  Refuses to be ground-bound, and is posting videos of himself doing impossible stunts that are drawing some attention, for better or for worse.   

La Brava: Drudge Wizened.  Falls in love with Gentle for showing her that you don’t have to shrink into what other people tried to make of you.  Has absolutely dyed her hair bright pink.  Somehow amazing at stealth anyway.

Gag Inclusion That Makes No Sense With the Lore But Is Perfect Anyway So I’m Not Changing It: 

Overhaul: “Don’t be ridiculous.  There’s no such thing as magic.”  

A banality-riddled Dauntain, from the previous incarnation of the game.  This is how Magne survives--he doesn’t kill her, but rather nukes her glamour reserves/Wyrd score access so badly she has to spend the next three months in the motley’s Hollow living in as much fae decadence as they can afford her, dining on hedgefruit, pampering herself, and keeping up with her various dream pledges while she recovers.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSES, ALTERNATE TAKES  

Hero Court, Villain Court: There is a version of the story where Heroes and Villains are old labels from a time when the freehold was built around a now-collapsed Sun Court/Moon Court dichotomy, headed up by All Might and All for One.  In the days following the catastrophic last battle, changelings of the Hero Court and the Villain Court alike have begun picking up the pieces and realigned to what everyone hopes will be a more stable Seasonal Court model.  Endeavor is the Summer King, a changeling who somehow had four three children when it’s all but unheard of to have even one.

Final Boss Shigaraki: There is a version of the story that centers on Deku, and in that version, what Shigaraki learns is this: everyone and everything has an end waiting for them somewhere.  As the game story progresses through power creep and mounting stakes, dramatic revelations and shifting priorities, Shigaraki moves away from Autumn and becomes more attuned to the fatalistic but liberating philosophy of Dusk.  As such, he gains the Entropy Contract clauses, I-V.  In this fashion, Shigaraki is paralleled by Final Battle Deku, rising champion of the Dawn, who is likewise gaining mastery of the Contract of Shonen Protag Powers Potential.  Will they be enemies in the end?  Allies?  Either way, their fates are connected.

Changeling All for One: There is a version of the story in which All Might and All for One are both changelings, in which the entirety of My Hero Academia is a story being played out in some far realm of Faerie.  All for One here is not Shigaraki’s Keeper, but merely a mentor who, when expy!Kamino happens, takes the opportunity to get Shigaraki out, knowing that he himself has been gone from the world for far too long to ever make the return trip through the Thorns intact.  In this version, All Might is an unknowing Loyalist who follows Shigaraki out, determined to capture him “for the good of society”--which would, of course, entail dragging him back to Faerie.

Destro the Revolutionary: There is a version of the story in which Desto is not one of the Gentry, but rather a changeling from years past, one who was spearheading a huge movement advocating that the Lost should reveal themselves to human society writ large--that Faerie predation could never be stopped as long as humanity didn’t know about it, and changelings had the power to, well, change that.   And weren't they tired of living in hiding; didn't they wish they could tell their loved ones the truth?  And that was a message that a lot of changelings liked, but it was also a message that terrified changelings in equal measure, and so in the end, an operative/operation from the Seasonal Court freehold put Destro down.  

In that take, Re-Destro is a successor to Destro as someone who came out of a similar durance and the MLA is a group planning a retributive war against the Seasonal Courts for their perfidy.  Shigaraki and the League could either stumble across the plot or be actively approached as a potentially sympathetic party after Shigaraki's relationship to AFO comes out and endangers his position in his own freehold.  

Re-Destro the Prince: There is a version of the story in which Re-Destro is not a changeling at all, but rather a vampiric prince, heir to a forbidden blood discipline.  He and his followers catch wind of the League motley: not vampires, but not normal humans, either.  They seek the motley out to find out what their deal is and whether it will be a complication to the MLA’s plans.  Vampires are far more immediately dangerous than changelings, but changelings have so many wonderful little tricks up their sleeve, especially against people who are careless with their battle banter.  (But I’ll be real, I hardly know a thing about Vampire: The Requiem--I’m much more familiar with Masquerade.  This version of the story mostly exists because I’m a Shigaraki/Re-Destro shipper and I am not immune to adventures in sexy blooddrinking.) 

THE WIDE WORLD OF DARKNESS

There are many other spins one could put on various MHA characters that would be fun to explore.  I kept all the relevant characters fae (or Fae) because if I started thinking about all the things the characters could be, I would actually never stop--and anyway, I’m more familiar with Old World of Darkness meta than I am New World of Darkness.  A lot of the ideas were still fun, though, so for your perusal, here are some of the ones I came up with:

The Shie Hassaikai is an extremist Hunter cell dedicated to weeding out supernatural creatures of all sorts.

Ujiko is a wildly amoral retired Hunter running a mad scientist lab funded by dubiously sourced money from his fae patron, as long as he’s spending a requisite amount of time per month working on AFO’s projects.

There exists a Sin-Eater and his resident Geist who have become so tangled in each other that they no longer retain separate identities, and are now merely “Kurogiri.”  

Kurogiri is a changeling.  Yamada Hizashi is a Sin Eater.  Aizawa Shouta is a Hunter, and he and Hizashi both are trying to dig up information on what happened to Shirakumo Oboro, but neither one of them is anywhere near getting at the truth of the matter.  (This one might actually be true for the purposes of the main Changeling!AU story.)

Midoriya Izuru is a mortal taking his first, faltering steps into the great wide world.  He’s had no durance, no first change, no sire, no awakening--he’s just a young man who stumbles across a secret and has to decide what to do with it.

[scripttorture]

Hey, so in the show Supernatural, torture is like...everywhere. Many of the main and supporting characters have both tortured and been tortured. But they seem pretty tough and get over fast even though some things have long lasting effects. I'm not sure how accurate they portray it, but they can't have characters out of commission for too long. But if I were to accurately portray the consequences what should I do?

Ihaven’t seen this show so there’s a limit to how much I can givespecific advice. This is going to be ‘general gist’ based on howfiction often fails when it comes to writing survivors.

Fromwhat you’ve described this isn’ta realistic portrayal of torture or torturers and it’s drasticallyunderestimating the psychological damage torture causes.

Torturecauses multiple severe complex mental illnesses in survivors. Thoseillnesses last for the rest of the survivor’s life.

Nowthis doesn’tmean that there’s no such thing as recovery. Torture survivors canand do go on to lead fulfilling lives doing what they want to do. Ittakes a lot of time and support for them to get there.

Itdoesn’t mean their mental health problems vanish,it means learning to live with them. In much the same way that aperson who develops a physical disability has to adjust and findeffective accommodations in order to get on with their life.

Basedon what you’ve described it sounds as though this show is doingseveral things I’d class as torture apologia:

-Underestimatingthe psychological damage torture causes

-Underestimatingthe time it takes to adjust to that damage

-Underestimatingthe time it takes to recover

-Assumingthat torture survivors can continue what they did previously with noadjustments

-Puttingmoral weight on the responses and symptoms torture survivors have

-Excusingtorture when the ‘good guys’ do it

Classingcharacters as ‘tough’ based on how they respond to extreme painand which mental health problems they develop/clearly show is…… aproblem. I think it’s especially toxic when applied to malesurvivors. It’s a trope that tells real survivors they’re weak ormorally inferior for failing to live up to a completely unreasonable,unrealistic standard.

It’stelling people they weren’t good enough because they have a normal,functioning nervous system.

Thoseseem to be the canon problems. And there are several ways you can tryto tackle that.

Partof it depends on how religiously you want to stick to canon. In thissort of scenario I’d suggest twisting it or outright contradictingit in places if you want to prioritise a realistic portrayal oftorture.

Youmight not want or be able to include everything I suggest but I thinkyou’ll get the best results by mixing several of these elements.

FirstlyI’d suggest assuming there’s a lot more time between incidentsthen the canon does. Months or years where the canon says days orweeks.

I’dalso suggest assuming the characters have some level of professionalhelp between these incidents. If the canon doesn’t providecharacters who could fulfil that kind of therapeutic role I’drecommend creating one. They don’t have to be a huge part. They canjust be a mention of a name, or that the characters are gettingtherapy.

Sincethis is a modern setting I’d suggest using a professionaltherapist. You could use people from other professions to play thissort of role, such as religious figures. I think the best choiceprobably depends on how much this setting keeps to the modern fantasy‘masquerade’ concept. If most people are unaware supernaturalbeings exist the characters might not be able to go to a ‘normal’therapist. You could still create a qualified therapist character tofill this role but you might feel like one of the existing supportingcharacters could fill the role.

Essentiallyhelp and support are incredibly important and I think you should makeit clear the character is getting help and support.

Picksome symptoms that you feel fit the characters and the story. In thiscase ‘the story’ can mean the canonstory or the story you want to tell in your fanfic or a combinationof the two.

I’vegot a Masterpost on the most common symptoms here.

Wecan’t predict what symptoms any individual survivor will get andpeople don’t generally experience every possible symptom. Which iswhy I suggest picking symptoms based on what you think fits the storybest.

Itend to recommend picking something in the range of 3-5 symptoms fora singleincident.For characters that are repeatedly incarcerated and tortured or heldfor an extremely long period (half a year or more at a time) Isuggest more symptoms and showing a greater severity of symptoms.

Idon’t know how much these characters have gone through. There’s apoint at which survival is less likely. And that isn’t just a caseof the injuries torture causes directly.

Themental health problems survivors experience compound physical healthproblems.

Forinstance most of the long term mental health problems torture causesresult in survivors getting less sleep then is healthy. This in turnsuppresses the immune system. It makes infection more likely, itslows wound healing and it increases the chances of infections orwounds becoming lethal.

Someof these mental health problems can make it a lot more difficult forsurvivors to access treatment or go to a hospital. For something likeanxiety that can mean finding going to seek help so distressing thatit’s ‘easier’ not to. But it can also be things like memoryproblems (an incredibly common symptom) making it impossible forsurvivors to keep medical appointments. Which often results ingetting barred from accessing medical services.

Thecombination of severe mental health problems and physical injuries,lack of access to services and lack of accommodations means survivorsoften can’thold down jobs. Which means they’re often incredibly poor.

Ifa character is being repeatedly captured, tortured and released it’sincredibly likely that they’ll just- keep getting worse.

Ihaven’t even really mentioned self harm, suicidal ideation and thedifficulty poor people in many places have accessing safe food andwater.

LikeI said I don’t know the series. So I don’t feel I can confidentlysay ‘these characters should be dead’. But I feel like it’simportant to be aware of how… these effects are cumulative. Theyadd up. They build.

Thereis only so much injury the human body can take.

Essentiallywhat I’m driving at here is that if a character is being kidnappedand tortured multiple times a month their life expectancy would,realistically, be extremely short. You can get around that by reducing the number of attacks, spacingout attacks more, giving the character time to recover and giving thecharacter access to good quality help.

Butif you’re still keeping all the incidents in the story then thecharacter is going to have more symptoms, or more severe symptoms, orboth. Like the symptoms themselves that’s not something that can bepredicted. So I think the best thing to do is choose which option youfeel fits each character best.

Sometimesyou can take a canon portrayal of a character and read it as showinga mental health problem. Which can help with picking symptoms. Acharacter who’s always alert to the exits and easily spots enemiescould be displaying hypervigilance. A character who’s forgetfulmight be read as having memory problems. Avoidance behaviours canindicate anxiety. And so forth.

Rememberthat torturing someone else alsocauses mental health problems and would further add to anycharacter’s symptoms.

Isuspect you might have quite a balancing act to do, between showingthe symptoms at a realistic level and showing the characters as stillable to do things they did in the canon. Don’t be afraid to getinventive and try to find work-arounds that accommodate thecharacter’s symptoms.

Allof this would have knock on effects on the way the characters relateto each other.

Ifall of the major characters are survivors you’re going to need tomake allowances for a lot of different, complex, health problems. Thecharacters aren’t necessarily going to be able to support eachother even if they want to. Looking after other people can bestressful and is always energy intensive. A lot of mentally illpeople, in the middle of a bad moment, wouldn’t have the energy.

Ifyou’re picturing a large group of characters all doing small thingsfor each other, that’s reasonable. That’s positive and a lot ofmentally ill people get a lot from this sort of set up. However ifonesurvivor character is acting as carer and therapist for all theothers- that isn’t reasonable, that’s a recipe for a breakdown.

Rememberthat, realistically, we all have limits.

Andnot being able to do everything doesn’t make people weak.

Tacklingthe implication that some symptoms are morally inferior or weak or‘wrong’ is probably going to be easier with an ensemble cast ofsurvivors. Because if you’re going through this picking symptomsfor each character the chances are you’ll get a lot of differentsymptom sets. Which creates the opportunity for the charactersto bring up these assumptions.

Havingthe characters talk about these assumptions and their feelings wouldbe a really good way to tackle these issues without breaking thestory. It can come out in virtually any aspect of their lives,interacting with the public (visible signs of anxiety, that bleakhumour that’s ‘unacceptable’), a mission (panic attacks,addiction, any of the four common memory problems) and interactingwith each other (aggression, depression, hypervigilance because closefriends and family always seem to assume they’ll be the magicexception).

Don’tbe afraid to have the characters hold some of these assumptions. Theycan be well meaning and still have little idea how to deal withmental health issues. They can want to help and still haveinternalised negative ideas about mental health.

I’dreally strongly suggest tackling the fact some of these charactersare torturers too. Don’t let the narrative ignore that or excuseit. Don’t let them downplay or justify what they did. Challenge thedecision these characters made. Highlight the fact their victims willbe in a similar position to them.

Iencourage you to take a clear moral stance on this because otherwiseI think the default position is tacit acceptance of torture. So longas it’s only ‘bad guys’ getting hurt.

If the canon shows torture as effective then for goodness sake change that. Torture is not an effective interrogation tactic. This is one of the main unrealistic depictions of torture in media and it actively encourages torturers (ie torturers have said in interviews that they thought torture would 'work' because they saw it working on tv).

You can read about how to write a realistic 'interrogation' using torture here.

Beyondthat- I feel I’m hampered somewhat by not knowing the sourcematerial. If I did I could suggest symptom sets for particularcharacters and highlight where the canon has done alright and whereit’s fallen down.

Asit is I think the best advice I can give you about writing recoverygenerally is to read what survivors say.

Thecheapest way to do that is to trawl through Amnesty International’smany many pieces on torture and torture survivors.It’s free. The search function is pretty good, I say as a veteranof wading through poorly constructed databases. There’s a lot toread and it can be daunting. It can also be hard to figure out what’srelevant to you.

Youmight also find it useful to go through Just Detention’s section onsurvivor’s stories.These are all focused on sexual assault and rape in prison. But manyof the survivors talk about how they moved on, how they healed. Andit’s a similar process.

Ifyou don’t mind paying then I recommend Monroe’s ADarkling Plainfrom Cambridge University Press. It’s interviews with a widevariety of survivors of traumatic experiences. Most of them survivedwar, some genocide. It’s incredibly useful to showcase thediversity in survivors and the way they carry on with life.

And-I think I’ll have to leave it there. I hope that helps. :)

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Plague of Petty Curses

Plague of Petty Curses -- Pathfinder Modern Malefactor Feat

There are magics that can kill. Magics that can cripple or blind, shatter stone and rend time; magics that can rip space and warp flesh, summon god-fiends and scorch cities to ash.

Your own magics can ... marginally inconvenience.

Yet somehow, always people get WAY more mad when you reach out and poke ‘em in the eye. Or in the wallet. Or get their car towed for the seventh time in a month. Or have them deported to Guam. Or change their phone number. Or get their name in the paper as the true father of Cardi B’s baby. Or organize a traffic jam just for them. Or have the same song played in their office on loop for 24 hours straight. Or cancel all their dental & massage appointments. Or pave their yard. Or have their mom arrested for shoplifting in Arizona (their mom does not live in Arizona). Or have their flight rerouted. Back to Guam. Again.

Or ... well, you get the idea.

Imagine how mad they’ll get when the curses start spreading.

Brought to you absolutely free to enjoy, to test & to share – as always – by the fine folks of my Patreon.

Prerequisite: Non-lawful & non-good alignment

Benefit: At will as a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity and requires total concentration, you may expend any number of points from your Strife Pool and choose a single target known to you. You do not need to know this target’s exact name or current location, but you must be able to identify the target well enough to call or text them via burner phone.

A character under the effects of nondetection, protection from evil or any similar abjuration effect cannot be targeted in this way. Similarly, you cannot target a creature you know only under a false identity or an assumed name: if you target a disposable one-time mask used casually by Lilinsyss Apex or Jackie Ipanema and then discarded, your effect fails and the points spent are lost. You may, however, target the ongoing alias of such a creature; you may also freely target individuals -- like Jack Hardy, the One-Man Party -- who primarily use their nicknames (if they even have a real name).

Once your target is chosen and the desired number of points from your Strife Pool have been expended, you are treated as if you possessed the Chains of Shadow-Influence Family Trait (but see below) with access to a single Sphere of your choice and a pool of shadow-influence equal in size to the total number of points expended from your Strife Pool in this way. You may choose a different Sphere of Influence each time this ability is used.

You may immediately expend any amount of shadow-influence gained in this way to call a curse down upon your target (but see below) with a severity appropriate to the amount of shadow-influence you choose to expend; this special curse -- much like use of the Invisible Miracles of the Spirit-Haunted City feat -- does not require any means of communication (such as a cellphone, email-access or the ability to send a coded message to an ally). Instead, the target simply suffers the appropriate effect at some point within a number of days equal to your target’s Hit Dice. You do not choose when this curse strikes: thus, you could call a curse down on the cop who gave you a speeding ticket, but you could not have the curse take effect while he’s still writing the ticket.

It happens when it happens.

For an ability that’s more ... time-sensitive, see Retroactive Stratagem.

This isn’t a mid-combat battle-tactic. But it can win a war.

You may choose to create an curse-effect that is outside the normal parameters of the shadow-influence system, but your GM is the final arbiter of what is and is not possible: curses created by use of this ability always appear mundane -- simply a matter of bad luck or a series of spiteful-but-harmless pranks -- even if the source is supernatural in origin. Thus, a curse you call down could set off a chain of bizarre and ugly miscommunications that leads to a dead body being dropped-off in your target’s hotel bathroom, or it could give your target a weirdly specific allergy to something like non-iodized salt, but a curse could not physically flip your target’s car upside-down in their work parking space.

Probably.

Curses called down in this way can only be used to harm your target & cannot normally be used to produce effects that are beneficial to you: you could not use a three-point expenditure in the Crime & Underworld Sphere to allow yourself the ability to live for one week in a bad neighborhood without fear of mundane crime, for example. You could, however, expend a single point of shadow-influence in the Medicine & Transportation Sphere to have your target’s medical records accidentally mailed to you, expend three points in the Religion & Industry Sphere to have a construction site placed on your target’s front lawn or expend seven points of shadow-influence in the Society & Media Sphere to crush your target’s prison-guard career due to bad publicity.

When you use this ability, you may expend any additional number of points of shadow-influence from your special pool to make this curse Contagious: any creature who attempts to aid your target in overcoming or evading your curse becomes infected with the same curse, suffering an identical fate within a number of days equal to their own Hit Dice total. Your curse may spread in this way to a total number of extra targets equal to the number of additional points of shadow-influence you first expended when you chose to make your curse contagious.

A creature targeted by your effect may always reverse the effects of this curse by expending shadow-influence of their own: for example, if you expend three points of shadow-influence in the Law Enforcement & Government Bureaucracy Sphere to have the utilities disconnected in your target’s apartment, she may expend three points of her own in the same Sphere (or 9 points from another Sphere) to have the utilities restored within ten minutes.

Additionally, any character targeted by your curse may always choose to drop herself by one step on the cost-of-living chart until the end of the month to buy-off & cancel the effects of your curse: she writes a check, makes a phone call, the cops issue a formal apology, the paper prints a retraction, the end.

Once your curse is set, it cannot be undone & you cannot cancel a curse you have created, in whole or in part: if you set a contagious curse on your ex-boyfriend (causing him to lose his job, hoping that the effect will spread to his loser friends when he goes crying to them), you cannot cancel the curse when he moves back in with his mom. She’s a nice lady and she doesn’t deserve it, but she catches your nasty mojo just the same.

Use of this ability cannot be Traced or Investigated via mundane means; however, any creature using the Monitor action instantly becomes aware of the unnatural effects of a curse (if not the source) acting in their Sphere.

After using this ability, you and your target (and any creatures infected by your contagious curse) radiate divine magical power, as per a functioning [curse] spell of a level equal to your character level, until the curse takes full effect plus an additional number of days equal to your character level. While this effect is active, any character with the Keen Eye for the Unknowable Family Trait may always correctly identify what specific action was ordered by use of this ability immediately upon observing you, your target or an infected victim (or no roll or action required).

Campaign Note: Within the Eve of Dreams & the AWAKE setting, use of this ability against fellow magicians is considered an open act of war -- since it has the potential to ignite an ever-escalating grudge match between armed factions and thus shatter the fragile Masquerade -- and thus it is tightly monitored by the governing Cult of the All-Seeing Eye. However, use of this ability is a favored tactic by many of the more “free-thinking” Cults against their stodgy opponents: nothing sends an official declaration of conflict to a foe quite like bulldozing a man’s country club and then having him declared legally dead.

Servants of Mammon take personal affront at the use of this ability: all members of the Inner Circle of the Archfiend are tasked to hunt-down and publicly slay any creature found using or benefiting-from this power. Of course, this is a task more-easily commanded than executed; in truth, it is the city-god spirits – with their ability to sniff-out fey and their keen eyes for magic – who primarily keep abuse of this ability in-check, sometimes mounting major offenses against hag covens, devout servants of the Savored Sting and even cityskin nymphs who trade in this power for coin, blood or favor.

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