#I am Mexican so don’t come at me telling me this is cultural appropriation please | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

neon-junkie · 3 years

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Hey everyone,

This will be my final post addressing the fandom conflict that has quite frankly gotten out of hand. Although it’s very likely this post will be picked apart, no matter how well intended it is, I will no longer be addressing, interacting, or responding to any further accusations made against me. Of course, if people have questions from a genuine place of interest, I will be happy to clarify anything for you, either via DM’s or non-anon asks. I will not be answering anonymous asks on this, as I do not want anything else posted on this topic.

As a side note: For anyone tempted to wade into the debate, I sincerely ask you not to get involved. Do not make yourself a target, do not feel you need to ‘pick a side’, and please do not think you have an obligation to reason with either side. It seems to be well past the point of that, so please find people you get along with in this fandom and curate a space for yourself away from all this conflict.

Warning: This post will contain uncensored slurs, mentions of racism, paedophilia, transphobia, LGBTQ+ phobia, death threats, threats of violence, targeted harassment, and abusive language.

To start off, I want to apologise to everyone who has somehow gotten drawn into this mess by either defending me, following me, or interacting with my content. This whole situation with me began well over a year ago when I wrote a crack-smut fic featuring Javier/Micah, posted back in August 2019. A crack fic is defined as “a work of fan fiction that is absurd, surprising or ridiculous, often intentionally.” It was inspired by a camp interaction between Micah and Javier, and like many other fanfiction writers, I decided to write smut about it. The fic was titled ‘Dirty Fucking Greaser’, and if that shocks you, I’m sure you can imagine how shocked I was to be informed afterwards that ‘Greaser’ was in fact a very serious 19th century slur for a Mexican individual. My first encounter with this word as insult was via RDR2, where it was used like a very casual insult. My only prior knowledge of this term was in regards to the greasers youth subculture, so the severity was lost on me. This obviously does not excuse my ignorance, and I should have researched the term better, but this is just again to apologize for that oversight, the insensitivity, and to highlight that my use of this term was not meant maliciously. Following this being pointed out, I proceeded to make 3 separate apology posts [Unfortunately I can only find the third one: HERE], renamed the fic, and added slur warnings in both the tags and the fic description. When I continued to receive complaints and increasingly aggressive abuse (which included being told my apologies weren’t good enough and I should delete my account and even kill myself), I attempted to delete the fic and mistakenly abandoned it instead. I contacted AO3 to see if it could be removed, but they said there was nothing they could do. I contacted their DMCA takedown team, who also said they couldn't remove it. Please note that all this happened 7-8 months ago, and has been dragged on for almost a year.

So, from this one unfortunate incident, I’ve been branded a racist, and someone who attacks POC, when all I have done is tried to defend myself and correct my past mistakes. I could have done this more gracefully in the past, but frankly when you’re suddenly the target of unrelenting callout posts and nasty anons, it’s very hard to be open to criticism of this sort, but this is what I’m trying to move past.

Over the course of the year, this one mistake has spiralled, and the crusade against me has somehow coincided with moral conflicts over certain characters and ships. This has devolved into dehumanizing abuse, witch hunts, death threats, doxxing, anon hate, and much more unpleasant behaviour.

I have been in fandom for a very long time, and at the heart of all fandom circles is the fear of censorship and subsequent purges, so the ‘ship and let ship’ mentality was more or less the pinnacle of fandom philosophy. And yes, this can be problematic in some contexts. People have their right to be uncomfortable with content, have a right to be offended by content, but that is not content meant for you. This argument has devolved into ‘what material is morally right to engage with’ and that is a mentality in which fandom will not survive, because for every person who is telling me I’m an awful person for writing about Micah, there are three other people telling me how much they appreciate me making that content. For every fic in which I characterize Javier and Flaco a certain way, some people are made uncomfortable by it and others tell me they enjoy it. And this isn’t just white people, but POC too, which makes it very difficult to know whether I am genuinely in the right or the wrong, especially when it comes to the concept of ‘fetishization’ which I have been made aware I need to educate myself on. I intend to do so, but I disagree with the common accusation that finding non-white men romantically and sexually attractive is inherently fetishistic and makes me racist. It’s pushing a catch-22; don’t find POC sexually attractive? Racist. Find POC sexually attractive? Racist.

I am always willing to be (politely) approached about anything my readers may be concerned about, but if it’s something I’ve specifically tagged for (such as themes, scenarios, etc.) I’m afraid you consented to reading it and with that I cannot help you. You are just as responsible for curating your space and what you see/read just as much as I am responsible for tagging it appropriately.

On the topic of racism, I want to bring up my prior use of ‘white racism’ which has obviously been a point of contention among both white and people of colour. The (literal) black vs white concept of racism is incredibly American-centric, and as someone from Europe, which has a history of oppression against white cultures and those of people of colour, it feels inaccurate. However, this has recently been discussed with me and I came to the realization that while growing up, especially in the UK, ‘xenophobia’ and ‘racism’ were marketed as one and the same. So, with this little revelation in mind, I will no longer be using ‘white racism’ (Or ‘reverse racism’) to identify the abuse I have been receiving, but will instead call it by what it really is; dehumanizing, debasing, xenophobic, puritanical.

Very briefly, I will also touch on the NewAustin situation, which has also been dredged into this. I did not ‘chase a POC from tumblr’. NA was a minor who for some reason was on my 18+ blog and took issue with me, likely from the ongoing discourse regarding my fic and initial mistake, as well as my interest in Micah. They were subsequently harassed into deleting their account by anonymous hate following various conflicts with other users for their support of me or their ships in general. I have never encouraged my followers to target anyone, and have always asked to be blocked and blacklisted by those who do not like me or my content. When NewAustin messaged me following the deletion of their blog, I was admittedly indifferent to the point of being unkind, and accused them of sending the hate themselves. This was based on the anon hate being racially-driven without there being any prior knowledge or publication that NA was a person of colour. This aside, I should have at the time, whether I believed it was my followers or not, condemned this behaviour. Regardless of the issues I’ve had with these people, it is never ever ok to send hate to anyone, no matter the motivation behind it, and that should have been stated at the time.

All I can do at this point is acknowledged and apologize for my past mistakes, and try to improve myself going forward.

It is not my place to dictate the morals of the character/ship-aspect of this argument, and I am not interested in waging a war of opinion. This post is simply to clarify how I am involved in this, and why I am so viscerally targeted. You can draw your own conclusions, but I am no longer interested in this endless back and forth.

To my mutuals/followers, I stand by my request to not interact and to block and move on, as this is what I’ll be doing too.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope it makes things from my perspective a little clearer.

-RAT <3

EDIT: Just after this post was made, the fic in question was finally removed. I had to go through a DMCA take down, which can take months, since I originally abandoned the fic, thinking that meant delete. I explain this in more detail above. Said fic is gone, and has been gone since this post has been around.

#the tea #apology #long post

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language-sanctuary · 4 years

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What is Día de Muertos?

(If you’re white, especially if you’re from the US, you’re obligated to reblog this post. I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules)

Día de Muertos is the most important and well-known tradition of indigenous origin in México celebrated on November first and second. It is a world heritage tradition. That is why so important that we are careful to portray it respectfully.

For us Mexicans, making altares is a way to cope with death, it is something that brings us closer to our loved ones who have passed way. I’ve discussed with my mother and my father in a very intimate way what they would like me to put in her altar when they pass away and I intend to learn how to make my mother’s favorite dishes so she’ll like them when she comes back to visit and she can be proud of me. That takes some of the fear out of things, to know that for one night every year I’ll have a chance to honor my loved ones and remember them fondly.

What does an altar usually have?

A figurine of a dog, usually a xoloitzcuintle, the sacred dog of the Aztecs, who will help the deceased person make their way to the land of the living and back to the land of the dead.

A photo of the deceased person

Copal (ancient incense that was offered to the gods in indigenous traditions, it clenses the space and helps guide the spirits to the altar).

Cempaxóchitl or Mexican marigold. This means “twenty flowers” or “flower of twenty petals” in náhuatl, Mexico’s most spoken indigenous language. Its bright yellow color and scent helps spirits return to the land of the living.

Multiple candles

In ancient times, real skulls were used, but they have since been replaced with sugar skulls that have the name of the deceased person written on the forehead.

Pan de muerto (Bread of the Dead), which is a representation of the mortal body (supposed to represent the skeleton, more specifically the hand)

Papel picado (tissue paper with cut-out shapes) that represent that this is a party and shows how happy we are to have them with us once more.

The deceased person’s favorite foods and beverages, and any objects that they might have used a lot while they were alive (musical instruments, their glasses, a typewriter, their favorite books, etc).

Calaveritas, which narrate in a comical or endearing, even a bit tongue-in-cheek way a person’s encounter with death.

Now, some common questions under the “read more”.

If I’m not Mexican, can I dress as a Catrina/Catrín for Halloween (or at all)? No. Please avoid doing so. We do not paint our faces to appear scary, and it is not really a costume, but a way to relate to the spirits who are coming back and they are meant to guard off death.

If I am visiting México during a Día de Muertos celebration, how should I behave? Usually people will put their altars on the main plaza and relatives of the deceased person will be taking care of it. You can ask questions, most will be happy to tell about the deceased person, they might even give you a pamphlet about their accomplishments or their story. Do not step into the cempaxóchitl or the tinted sawdust, do not touch anything, those are specially put there so the spirits can find the altar easily.

Can altars be made of non-Mexican people? Yes. It is very common to see altars dedicated to famous non-Mexican people, like Anne Frank, Martin Luther Kind, Andy Warhol, etc, (I once saw one of Trump that said “1946-hopefully soon”), usually made by kids for a school project.

Is Coco from Disney a good representation of Mexican culture? Kind of. It is definitely more in the appreciation side of the spectrum more than cultural appropriation. The studio did such an enormous amount of research and the outcome was amazing. Miguel? He is the cartoon version of so many of my cousins. The movie has so many easter eggs you will only get if you’re familiar with Mexican culture, like María Félix, el Santo, the architecture, or the fact that Ernesto de la Cruz was inspired by José Alfredo Jiménez. They did add a lot of lore to make the movie flow better. However... it is still Disney.

When making Coco, Disney did everything in their power to copyright Día de Muertos so they could use it as a title, in promotional materials and merchandise. I hope you can see why that is problematic, especially when it’s coming from a white, culturally dominant country towards a POC, primarily poor country; especially when they intended to profit from an indigenous-originated celebration in a country when 75% of the indigenous population that has survived the genocide caused by the Conquest is in extreme poverty.

Please support Mexican artisans, indigenous creators, mixed creators. If you want to really know about Mexican culture, watch actual Mexican movies. Would you watch Mulan if you wanted to be introduced to Chinese culture? I really hope not. Please watch actual Mexican movies.

I hope this was helpful for anyone who didn’t know how to behave respectfully around this time of year, or even if you wanted to know about Día de Muertos from an actual Mexican person. Here’s my ko-fi if you wanna buy me a $2 coffee for the time and effort I put into this blog!

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floralbuckleys · 3 years

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I just want to mention before you slate anyone for hating on Gabriella Walsh; she's been called out a multitude of times for taking advantage of pretending to be Latinx and for profiteering off Latinx people and culture when she had no Latinx heritage or blood.

She's been asked repeatedly to stop appropriating Latinx culture, roles and appearances and she refuses to acknowledge it or understand that what she is doing is harmful.

It has absolutely nothing to do with misogyny or any ships and everything to do with racial/cultural appropriation.

Just in case you weren't aware or were confused!

Hello anon! I hope you're prepared for a read, because I have quite a few things to say in response to this. I am neither unaware nor confused, and nor by the way are other POC friends I ranted about your ask with.

So let’s get into it.

1) It's interesting this is literally the only thing you choose to address. Not the misogyny or malicious hatred Gabrielle and the other female actresses' on the show get, but simply this. Interesting.

Now, you should ask yourself, why when someone makes a post against malicious hatred and misogyny it is not your FIRST response to agree, but rather try to change the conversation against them.

2) Secondly, please understand that everything I am saying comes from my own experience and point of view as an afro mexican myself and honestly if you are white, I could care less what you think on the issue.

I find it interesting you're so comfortable attacking Gabrielle Walsh for these claims of "taking advantage", "pretending to be latinx", and "profiteering off latinx people."

Such big broad powerful statements to say, when in reality you should NOT be so comfortable attacking a mixed African American woman, or any person of color for Fox's CHOICE to cast Gabrielle Walsh in this ambiguous latinx role.

Why aren't you attacking FOX about their casting choices? Why aren’t you going against networks for choosing to do this, but POC?

Let’s not forget that we all know there are a few other actors you could bring this debate up against, but that doesn't really happen now does it? I wonder why.

3) Tell me, what do you know of the struggles of being a black woman in America or a black woman trying to pursue a career as an actress in America? Any race of color and so on?

What do you know of what it's like to be a person of color going through a rigorous casting process, and potentially constantly only get casted as latinx because you are mixed and do not have the stereotypically features/attitude the casting wants?

You don't know.

Hell, I don't know either because I've never had to be in Gabrielle Walsh's shoes or any black women trying to get an acting job in America or anywhere in the world.

But, I do know that growing up as an Afro mexican myself in school with a Spanish name, but "ambiguous" features, people have literally sat around me and debated my race before I could speak up or clarify.

"You look black."

"No, you look mexican."

That is such an uncomfortable position to be, and I would imagine Gabrielle. Walsh has felt the same, because it's a feeling a lot of mixed POC can most likely relate to, constantly getting placed in a box by what race they are and what race they're perceived as. POC actors are constantly forced to deal with these issues, while it’s easy for people to attack us for them online.

I can only imagine how many times a white casting director has looked at her and thought, “Well, I know that you’re not latinx, but you certainly look at it, and that’s all we care about.”

Because at the end of the day what does white Hollywood really care about? Trying to get that diversity win.

4) In my opinion, a lot of the hate Gabrielle is even getting is because she's getting in the way of the fandom's favorite ship. Any female who gets in the way of the ship gets hate.

So, is it really your niche to constantly pinpoint POC actors or any actor really who gets cast to play a character of a race they are not? Ambiguous or otherwise. Is it your passion to speak on this issue?

What about sexuality? Straight actors who play LGBTQ+ roles and vice versa? What about religion as well? There are so many angles to look at this from.

Ask yourself seriously, if you are attacking Gabrielle. Walsh because you're genuinely THAT concerned that a mixed black woman is getting cast to play this ambiguous latinx role.. OR if you're just concerned for your ship.

5) Not to mention the amount of issues black and latina women themselves face in the industry and their experiences. Honestly POC actresses and actors are the most hated on in fandoms. People love coming for their necks over nothing and anything, and that’s how it’s been for a long ass time.

6) Now to speak on it from another point of view, I wish Casting Directors did not do this. I wish that people were cast to play the race they are, and that people of color didn’t have to deal with these types of issues.

I wish people of color weren’t placed into boxes by how they appear, and not what they are.

But no, I myself as a afro mexican am NOT offended that Gabrielle. Walsh is being cast to play these roles. Nor would I be offended if the roles were reversed, because you know what? There are so many more important things to be upset about when it comes to the injustice of POC.

People of color have had to fight so hard to even have their place in the entertainment industry and we constantly have to see famous white actors portrayed us our races.

Now, I’d be very interested to know what Gabrielle Walsh herself actually thinks about the issue and her experiences, and what she thinks about all the hate she has received from it.

It’s actually a very deep conversation to have that should be had, and probably because of fear of backlash, we will never see her speak on it.

And genuinely, if other latinx people have an issue with Gabrielle’s role, or any other similar issues to this, I respect their voices and I respect that conversation because we are valid.

But I do not accept vilifying her for this, especially if it’s coming from a misguided place.

So nah, you ain't about to come into my inbox and try to make her seem like some money hungry culture stealing witch to me. Nah.

Honestly, there's a lot more I could say on this topic, but to summarize, I do not agree with your blind views, and I will not tolerate any hate against this actress on my blog.

Think whatever the heck you want about the character, I am indifferent, but this ain’t it for me.

So if any other Gabrielle haters want to try it, you're simply going to be blocked because I am not dealing with your bullshit.

EDIT: Someone asked my opinion on the interview Gabrielle did and I’ll be frank. I did not like her wording on it, but it is not an odd thing to hear a person of color say in my experience. I’ve heard POC people around me say similar things. Is it a problematic statement? Yes. Should she be informed of that? Yes. Do I think it came from a malicious place? No.

However, I don’t think she took that question very seriously, nor do I think the interviewer was really trying to get to the BOTTOM of her serious thoughts on it.

When I say I would be interested to hear her thoughts on the matter, I’m talking about a deep dive, another POC asking her the serious questions and getting to the root of her thoughts and others on the matter, there and now.

#and to say it has NOTHING to do with misogyny?? are you blind? must me.#fandom wank #my opinion #block me if you like #!#but ive seen this going around since i joined the fandom and as a poc it makes me extremely uncomfomrtable!#and lets not even get into how allot of this behavior could be seen or IS racist microaggressions #like pls #gabrielle walsh #911 fandom discourse #discourse #tw: discourse

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ecl1pse · 4 years

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Hi! I saw ur post on how it’s hard to stan gidle bc of the questionable stuff they do and since I don’t know much about it can u please explain to me anything problematic they’ve done? Not that I doubt u I just wanna know about it

ooh, girl! lemme tell ya. this is gonna be a long one, and i will preface this saying i absolutely do not have all the facts and details, but this is what i’ve gathered in my time being a mostly soft neverland.

when (g)i-dle debuted they released this v beautiful mv along with their debut song latata. in the mv the girls had henna in their hands, which, ok. nothing too bad, right. but that was just the beginning of a very weird history of cultural appropriation.

then they released another banger: hann (alone). amazing vocals. amazing sound. cool choreo. but the mv was littered with all these…hm. middle eastern references. which. ok, latata also had some of that. it’s…ok. maybe they’re just going for A Thing. it’s ok. this is just their first comeback, their second single overall, and their first digital single release ever. BUT during one of end of year shows, the girls found themselves in hot water bc they had a stage where they had freaking synagogue as their backdrop. not even like a cool 3d stage, it was printed synagogue on freaking sheet. we all collectively had a very oof moment. (also, shuhua had like, no lines in this song. a crime on itself.)

after that came senorita. which should have been called señorita. it was catchy, it was replayble, it was spicy. it was also also kind of weird how they had a guy just singing “señorita” in the background, and no other lyrics in spanish, other than soojin saying “señor” by the end…hm. also the beat is just very generic “latin-inspired” song. in one of their live stages they had a fake-ass mariachi band as their….back up dancers. or whatever. they were just in the background pretending to play the trumpets. which personally i found more funny than offensive. but also i’m mexican and when momoland dressed up in ponchos, sombreros and fake mustaches, me and my sister just laughed and went “haha we do look like that!” i can take a joke. like, very easily. (also, if you want a more tactful latin-inspired k-pop song, listen to vav’s senorita & give me more. absolute bops imo.)

after that came uh-oh, which is a very clearly an old-hip hop inspired comeback, even down to the mv. it’s proooobably my favorite song of theirs ngl. this comeback wasn’t…too bad or shrouded in controversy, ‘cause tbh the mv director did a pretty good job at paying homage to late 90s/early 2000s music videos. but still, some people were skeptical considering the rep they had been building up. and at this time it was becoming very clear that soyeon is calling the shots, or at least has the most say out of all the girls both in songwriting and art directing when it comes to their concepts/mvs.

during the summer/fall of 2019 gidle participated in the competition show queendom. in the show, during the planning of the stage performance for their cover of 2ne1′s fire, soyeon asked yuqi to make “tribal sounds” for the opening of the song and sing it like she’s “an african chief” and said this was how they could keep their sound, which she describes as “ethnic hip.” it was. gross. and the rest of the girls just laughed it off. queendom pretty much ended up confirming everyone suspicions that soyeon is the one coming up with these ideas and the rest of the girls are just there to do what she says. you can look up the behind the scenes and planning of the stages on m-net’s youtube channel. soojin doesn’t even get a word out when they were planning the fire stage. it’s…weird ngl. you can’t even accuse m-net of evil editing this one bc she just says that! like, wtf. anyways [here is an excerpt of the video]. she says it with such a straight face, too. ew.

people demanded an apology from gidle, soyeon more specifically. it never came. so people boycotted their next release: lion. honestly i don’t know if any transgressions happened during this time cuz i was just so put off by what was mentioned above that to this day i can’t really even vibe to lion. it just brings a guttural disgust to my whole being.

i’m little iffy on the timeline here – bc like i mentioned, i was keeping as far away as possible from gidle at the time cuz of soyeon’s comments – but i do remember that some time after yuqi found herself in hot water for a comment she made about shuhua during a livestream that went like she “needed darker skin to be a police because her white skin wouldn’t let her to catch criminals at night.” or at least that’s how a fanclub made it sound like. it sounded v suspish, but a lot of fans came to her defense saying the joke was poking fun at how fair shuhua is and how she wasn’t actually making fun of darker skin. the fanclub that made the translation actually came out with a letter of apology saying they had rushed the translation and the joke was actually little more nuanced than what they made it out to be. regardless, yuqi actually apologized on a fancafe letter. which was actually really nice of her, since the mistake wasn’t so much on her part, and if anything this is a way lighter offense than anything soyeon has ever done or said, and yet….

[here is a koreaboo article that includes screenshots of the fancafe letter and a translation]

it’s been awhile since gidle/soyeon have said or done anything since – well, it’s been a while since they have released anything, and they’ve been under a microscope since the queendom incident. also, i haven’t payed attention at all to what they have been doing, if they have been doing anything, lol.

their latest transgression has been the very blatant, very suspicious uplifting of imagery from fka twig’s cellophane mv onto their mv for their newest single, oh my god. @anna-something made a [post] which very clearly lays it all out, screenshots and everything. considering all the evidence above i have to say this one also falls on soyeon’s shoulders yet again. also, as i was making this post someone commented on an yt comment i made on a mv reaction of the mv (since i’m not gonna give them views, lol) saying “maybe they have the same mv director.” i looked it up, they don’t. cellophane was directed by andew thomas huang, while oh my god was directed by yoon rima.

in conclusion, it is very exhausting to try to stan (g)i-dle. wouldn’t recommend it. mostly because soyeon does not seem like the greatest person ever. now, i will say i am all for cultural appreciation! in fact, i tried to believe that’s what they were going for during senorita. but… it’s become very clear that soyeon doesn’t understand there IS a line between appreciation and blatant appropriation, so she tends to fall on the latter. if she just apologized, strived to be better, and actually took the criticism and applied it towards becoming a better person – and therefore a better artist – than i could get behind her 100%. but as it stands right now, i don’t like her. i don’t like her at all. i have given her chances, but she does not seem to want to accept her missteps. she doesn’t even addresses them at all. and i’m tired. if yuqi could, why can’t she? i doubt cube, as shady as they are, is keeping her from releasing some sort of statement.

if she intends to make it big over here in the west she needs to grow up, she needs to apologize. until she does that she will continue to jeopardize not only her own career, but also yuqi’s, miyeon’s, soojin’s, shuhua’s, and minnie’s careers, and they really don’t deserve that. she might be the biggest voice in the group, but she’s also the one dragging them down. APOLOGIZE, SOYEON, GODDAMMIT!

if anyone wants to add anything else that missed, please feel free to do so.

#gidle #dont even say this is standard for kpop i will cut u #its 2020. this should not be excused #anonymous #ask

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spellbindingbeefcake · 7 years

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Required Reading ~ Otis & Wally

Wally goes to the library to look for some reading material. He finds Otis and they discuss what they know and don’t know.

Wally tapped the bell of the front desk and looked around. He had really missed New Rome's library. It was filled with books from every genre, from every school of thought and practice. It made sense that it had the largest collection of magic texts he'd yet to come by. Circe spoke so proudly of her few dozen spellbooks, but they were nothing compared to the mass of knowledge that the Roman library had. When he saw the librarian come up to meet him, Wally smiled. "Hi! I was wondering if you could help me find a book?'

Otis was stacking books in the "Music and Arts" section of the library when he heard the front desk bell ring. He paused what he was doing and walked down a row of shelves. When he turned down the aisle he was surprised to see who was standing there. "Hey Wally! What book are you looking for?"

Wally tapped his hands flat on the counter. "How ya doing? It's Otis, right?" The man had almost forgotten the guy he met during the festival. "I need some spell books. I wanted to find a book on like, rituals and doing altars." He remembered after a moment that Otis was knew to camp. "But if you don't know it's okay. I know you're still finding your way around camp and all."

"Yes sir, Otis I am." He laughed and motioned for Wally to follow him. "I may be new to camp, but I know my way around these books." Otis lead the other boy down a few isles and toward a shelf full of old books, some of which had very worn bindings. "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you looking for these books for."

"Glad I remembered. Would'a been embarrassing to forget. Did you have a good time at the festival, dude?" Wally went around the counter and started to follow behind. "Do you like your job? I never thought about working at a library." He looked around the shelves and pointed to a few of the Halloween decorations that had been set up. "Halloween. I was planning on doing a small spell for the holiday, and the next full moon."

"I've been working at libraries since I was young, I love it." Otis said, before pulling out a book and tucking it between his arms. "I know a few spell books in here for Halloween. Back in New Orleans there was a lot of lore about these books being connected to voodoo magic," he said, pulling out a second book from another spot, "but obviously for most people it really is just a legend to get people into the Halloween spirit. How long have you been spell casting? I've tried but could never get the hang of it. As a son of Nemesis, I pretty much got cursed with not having any special abilities or affinities."

Wally nodded his head and pointed at Otis. "That's where your from; I should'a guessed. Your accent is super thick. That's not a surprise, there's a lot of magical energy down there in Louisiana." He kept looking around, not really paying attention to what books Otis was taking out from the shelves. "Since I was young, a bit before I came to Camp Half-Blood. Around when I was ten, so around twelve years." He smirked and shrugged at Otis. "Eh, magic is a little tricky. I know there are some demigods who aren't my siblings that can do, but others never can. But Nemesis, her kids don't really have any physical powers, do they?"

Otis looked at Wally as he searched around the shelves, realizing he hadn't paid the least attention to set of tomes he'd pulled. "Apparently the famous Marie Laveau had an affinity for magic, but I don't share that gift. I do like to think I have a superb sense of right and wrong, but I'd attribute that to just having morals in general. Mind showing me what you can do?"

Wally nodded quickly. "Oh I remember that! When I was at Camp Half-Blood and learning about people - famous people who were actually real witches and wizards, she was one of them, along with Marilyn Monroe. But Marilyn was more into beautification magic." He smirked, tipping his head to the side while Otis talked. "Morals or not, I bet you'd make a great judge." He looked at Otis and folded his arms. "What do you wanna see? I'm rather very good at transformation magic. Would you be interested in a fine pair of cat ears?"

"A pair of cat ears? I'm sure I could wear them well. A judge though?" Otis laughed at the thought. "I'm sure I'd serve my mother proud, though I can't say that would please me. The Goddess of Retribution likes to put her morals on hold the moment someone wrongs her..."

Wally chuckled and eyed Otis for a moment. "Yeah? Most people get so angry at me when I do something to them, they look ready to burst." He started to look again at some of the books. "She's a goddess, and like all our godly parents they think they're above some laws that even they try to govern. But hey, that's the life we live in. You're still learning about all that." He took a look at one of the books in Otis' hand. "This looks interesting."

Otis handed the book to Wally. "It's supposedly a spell book for reanimating deceased animals. Basically zombie pets, it's one of my favorite legends. I've never seen it work though, so I question it's validity. It also has a spell for summoning a loup garou, though it doesn't let you control the bloodthirsty beast yourself so you run the risk of getting mauled to death." Otis grinned while he said it, enjoying the opportunity to teach another person about all the myths he grew up with. "There's a lot of blood magic in it, which is typical of Cajun culture. Magic always has it's penalties."

Wally laughed and turned the book around, looking at the back and then he started to flip through the pages. "This is pretty cool. I've never tried resurrection, but bringing back your old pets seems really creepy - which is good, considering the season! But if New Rome has it here, it must have some validity to it." Wally frowned and scrunched his eyebrows together. "Loup Garou? That's the uh," he scratched his head. "Mexican monster?" Wally huffed and nodded. "Believe me, I know that."

"The loup garou is a werewolf legend from New Orleans." Otis said. "The rougarou hunts down Catholics who break Lent, and if a Catholic breaks lent seven years in a row, they then become a rougarou themselves. Or you tell your kids they'll be eaten by the loup garou if they don't stop being brats. By the way, what are you doing for Halloween? You said you wanted a spell to coincide with the season, but what do you have planned?"

"Aww, the lycans. That's cool, very festive for the Catholics. It must be just an urban legend though, right? I didn't think Catholics believed in werewolves." Wally took the book from Otis, the one on animal resurrection and tucked it under his arm. He wouldn't use the spells in it, but they could give him some extra knowledge. "I was actually planning on going as Captain America. I don't know if I mentioned it when we met but I've been pretty much out of commission for the past few months, missed some pretty cool stuff. I missed them revealing the poster for Infinity Wars. I missed Spider-Man: Homecoming. Sadly I didn't miss Justice League."

"You're going where? Trick or Treating? Not be rude, but aren't you a bit old?" Otis said, chuckling. "I haven't paid much attention to superhero movies. The idea in them that one person is the good guy just because they're able-bodied, attractive white men doesn't sit well with me." Otis noticed Wally had placed a few books under his arm. "You ready to go check out?"

Wally laughed and shook his head. "You don't need to trick or treat if you dress up. It's in the spirit of Halloween - and Samhain, which I'll also be celebrating." The blonde took another book off the shelves that seemed interesting. He smiled at the man's comment and wondered what an appropriate response would be. "I mean, they have black people in those movies too. Falcon is one of the coolest. I think you should rewatch these films." He nodded. "Yup, all ready."

Otis lead Wally to the register and started scanning his books. "I haven't dressed up for Halloween in years." He thought back to the last time he actually celebrated Halloween. He dressed up in a homemade rougarou costume and won the costume competition at his stepfathers Halloween party. "Well, if you want company, I don't have any plans this year. Let me know, you know where to find me!" He said, waving his hand around the building.

Wally scoffed and gave Otis this look of disappointment. "That should change. Halloween is a wonderful day. I won't get into the details now, but you should really try and get into the spirit. You still got a little more than a week." He smiled at Otis and nodded. "Maybe I'll take you up on that offer. But this is the twenty-first century, so I'll just give you my number, okay?" Wally cupped his hands together and squeezed, purple light shining through the crevices of his fingers. When he reopened them, a little scroll was in his palm. He dropped it in front of Otis and then took his books. "I'll have the returned on time, if any of the animals I summon back from the dead don't eat them first."

Otis grabbed the scroll in front of him and opened it to find Wally's number. "Just be careful not to get the books damaged by reincarnated animals, if and when you decide to make the necessary sacrifice in the first place to summon them." Otis watched the boy leave the library and went back to work himself.

#chatzy para #para: otis #chat: otis

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