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not-the-cleavers · 4 years

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Target II - Chapter 4

Hey guys real quick - I’m posting this now because I live in Australia and there’s a fire less than 20km away from my house so we’re on alert for evacuation. Basically I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post if we end up getting evacuated - I’m not looking for sympathy, it is what it is, I just want you beautiful people to know what’s going on.

Anyway.....

Tags; @adrenaline-roulette and @amy-brooklyn99 - if you would like to be tagged just let me know

Pairing; Four x Eight (female reader) Fandom; 6 Underground Warnings; Swearing, angst, mention of human/sex trafficking, drinking and smoking Word count; 1.7k (total so far 6.3k)

Summary; The team has moved onto their next target after dealing with Rovach Alimov, a war criminal named John Dough. Eight has just joined the team and is dying to show how much she deserves to be there

Catch up; Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

Entering the hanger I noticed that someone had kindly placed a stool where I would normally stand during our briefs, these things tend to run long and I don’t think I’d be able to stand for the entire thing. Four helped me slide onto the stool and instead of scurrying off to the opposite side of the table; where he normally stands, he stayed put, leaning onto the cold metal table. I pulled my laptop closer to me to start to pull useful information from that key logging software I installed before we left. Much to my surprise John Dough uploaded his entire hard drive, virus and all, to his personal version of the cloud, where he uploads and downloads to all his personal devices, spreading my virus everywhere. The idiot just made my job so much easier! “You look like you’ve got good news, care to share with the rest of class?” One said in his usual sarcastic tone. Clearly my poker face needs work. “You two aren’t fucking are you?” he said in a dead serious tone, flicking a finger between Four and myself. “What? No!” Hopefully I was able to hide my disappointment with shock, “it’s about John Dough. The idiot just uploaded my virus to every single one of his devices. I can see everything he does” I said with a smirk. A deep belly laugh erupted from One. “Eight if I wasn’t kinda terrified of you, I would kiss you right now!” he almost yelled, causing Two to crack a smile. “What does this mean for the mission?” Three asked, not entirely sure what I was talking about but willing to play along. “It means I have complete access to his whole system. I can upload a new virus that will duplicate everything onto my servers here without him ever knowing. If he hires more guards, I’ll know. If he books a flight anywhere in the world, I’ll know. If he sends a dick pic, I’ll know. If he does anything on any single one of his devices, I’ll know. This means this mission got a whole hell of a lot easier my friend, we are no longer flying blind” I explained. This caused a huge smile to explode onto Threes face, after getting pinned by those two guards I’m sure this was welcomed news.

“So what’s on the hard drive?” One asked, breaking the joyful feeling in the air. “I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet, I only woke up like an hour ago, and someone grabbed it from my vest in the van yesterday and put it here” I bit back. Did he seriously think I had the chance to look at the hard drive yet? “Eight that was 3 days ago! Are you seriously trying to tell me you’ve been unconscious this whole time?” What? It can’t have been days, how had I been out for days? And did he seriously not check in on me at all during that time? “I’ll take your silence as a yes” he huffed, anger evident in his voice, though I wasn’t sure why. “C’mon man, give her a break…” Seven came to my rescue while everyone else remained silent “Don’t you ‘c’mon man’ me, this isn’t good enough. We needed intel three fucking days ago! And while princess over here was sleeping, this fucker helped destroy another small community in Syria!” One was getting extremely irate, and your hand instinctively went to where your holster normally sat on your hip, but instead of your hand wrapping around your trusty sidearm, it was grabbed by Four. What was he doing? “And you would have been able to stop that, in three days, with one of us out with a gunshot wound?” Seven sneered “Face it man, we wouldn’t have been able to save those people. I know it sucks but this is what we have been dealt” he placed his hand on Ones shoulder, which was quickly shaken off. “Right well this has been a waste of time, does anyone have anything to add to this?” We all looked around the room at one another not daring to say a damn word. “Right, well that’s that” One said walking past us all to leave, stopping to put a his hand on my shoulder, lean down really close to my ear and say “I’m starting to wonder if I made a mistake bringing you into this. Prove to me I didn’t” loud enough for everyone to hear before walking away. I didn’t dare move my eyes to look at anyone, instead choosing to stare dead ahead or else the tears would come, and I wasn’t about to fucking cry in front of everyone.

I slowly pulled myself off the stool, slammed my laptop lid closed, picked up the hard drive and made my way out of the hanger. “Fucking prick” I muttered to myself, how dare he say that shit to me! I was fucking shot getting that fucking hard drive while he sat in the getaway car. If he wants me to prove I deserve to be here, that’s just what I’ll do, and then he can explain why he’s the only one here who never seems to do anything. The walk back to my trailer was long and slow and I was starting to understand Five’s advice to take it easy. I gingerly made it up the two steps of my trailer and slammed the door behind me, I was going to get to work and make One fucking eat his words. I walked past my living quarters and into my makeshift office. This trailer used to have a drivers seat and dashboard that was ripped out, so when I got here I got to work making a desk, knowing I would need it for my role in the team. I sat myself down at my desk and started clicking my way through every single file I had transferred over, easily getting into any password protected folders. Everything about this John Dough made me sick to my stomach, but when I came across a folder named ‘Girls’ I knew it was about to get worse. I forced myself to open the folder and what greeted my eyes was foul. Hundreds of videos and photos of women and teenage girls in varying stages of undress and beaten into such a state I feared they were dead flooded my screen. These were most likely women and girls forced into sex slavery, trafficked away from their families and treated like this. I slammed the screen down again, I needed a fucking drink. I walked back out of my office and poured myself a healthy of whiskey into a not very clean glass and just as I was about to take a sip there was a knock at my door. I hobbled my way over to the door and pushed it open, not looking to see who it was, before turning around and walking right back in. “Drink?” I asked the visitor, holding up my glass so they could see, “Uh sure, got any beer?” the deep accented voice of Four came from behind me. “Feel free to check but I don’t think so” I told him, motioning towards the small fridge with my hand that held my whiskey. I slowly lowered myself onto my bed again and watched Four squat down to check my drink options. When his search came up empty, he muttered that he would be right back, and walked right back out the door. A chuckle escaped my lips as I leant back and took a sip, making a slight face as the liquor burned its way down my throat.

My door opened one last time as four re-entered with two six packs of some kind of beer, unloading one into my fridge and bringing the other one, and my bottle of whiskey, over to my bed, where he sat down next to me. “What’s going on? I know One was being an arsehole back there, but I can tell something else has happened” Four said knowingly, watching me take another slip. “This whole week can fuck itself. First I get shot – and that’s still not on you so don’t try it, then I get ridiculed in front of everyone because I was apparently unconscious for three days, then going through that hard drive I’ve come across some of the worst things I’ve seen and I’ve only scratched the surface.” I replied, cutting myself off before mentioning anything about how I felt about Four and how he would never feel the same way. “What are you talking about?” he asked hesitantly after a long drink from his bottle. My only response was to point him in the direction of my office. While he was gone I leant over to a set of drawers at the end of my bed and grabbed a pack of Marlboros and an ashtray, quickly lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag. I tended to only smoke when stressed and man oh man, today was one of those days.

I soon realised that Four had been gone a while, so I thought I better check on him, all this movement probably wasn’t ideal for my side but honestly, fuck it. I found him, standing in shock at what he discovered on my laptop screen, his hands shaking. Afraid he was going to drop his half-drunk beer on the ground, I grabbed it from his hand after closing the laptop one final time. I walked him back to my bed and sat him back down; in hindsight I probably should have warned him. “Sorry, I should have given you a heads up, I forgot that you don’t normally see that kind of thing.” Normally it was myself or One who did the background on the targets and the team only were given the necessary information. Four raked his hands through his hair before asking “you normally see shit like that?” he sounded shocked, I nodded before replying “I’ve never seen anything exactly like that before, but yeah it is common” the words muffled slightly by my cigarette. Without warning Four grabbed it from between my lips and took a drag before placing it back. “I’m so sorry, I had no idea” he mumbled. “S’alright, I’m glad it still gets to me, means I’m still human” he chuckled weakly at my response. We were clearly feeling the heaviness in the air surrounding that last subject. “Hey lets play twenty questions” I piped up, hoping for a change of pace, and by the way his expression changed I could tell he was okay with that. “You first, your number is lower than mine” I laughed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So yeah that’s the most recent chapter, again I really don’t know when the next chapter will be up. I hope you enjoy!

#ben hardy #ben hardy fic #ben jones #6 underground #6 underground fic #four x reader #four x eight #billy/four #four fic

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emotionalrealist · 5 years

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Equilibrium - Chapter One: Liberator or another tyrant?

One Piece fanfiction featuring an original character. I do not own anything but the plot of the fanfiction and the character, everything else belongs to Eiichiro Oda. WARNINGS: strong language, scenes of sex (suggestive or visual), violence, murder, death, slavery

The halls only echoed with the sound of clicking chains along soft weeps and sobs; not that the girls could hear any of the disrupting sounds. Their bodies were being dragged to the last cell in a long linear hallway, whose stone walls and floors oozed with the smell of dried blood and urine. Two guards hung them on the chain bracelets hanging from the short ceiling, one by the left side of the entrance, one by the right side of it. The only item in the small cell was a small, worn – out table decorated with a black, laced mask, which would cover the nose and eyes of the one wearing it, and now a log pose, golden bracelet and a cowboy hat; which were added moments before their bodies ended up swinging in the air on the cold metal handcuffs.

‘’Seems like you got new roommates, Walker. I hope they do as well as you do.’’ One of the guards, with a body much larger than the one he spoke to, mocked the newcomers, while examining the items on the table, placed directly across the orange hair newcomer and on the left side of the third hanging body.

‘’Oh, I’m sure they’ll bring nothing but pleasure to those who demand them.’’ Throaty but grating voice departed from the third hanging body in the cell, equally in a mocking tone, competing with the guards. It wasn’t his first ride with the prisoner in question; he knew full well her tone was just another way of her disobedience towards them, which now resulted in heavy footsteps towards her.

‘’Don’t get witty with me, Walker, I’ll make sure the Boss punishes you for it.’’ The chains slowly clicked while his hand, wrapped in a black, metal glove, hugged her cheeks and gripped them hard, pulling her whole body towards his impressively big figure.

‘’Oh, I could never; I wouldn’t want my handler get jealous. I know how much you enjoyed last night, Marky.’’

Her tongue once again earned her a slap across the face, every wrinkle of his mesh glove leaving a red visible mark over her right cheek, pushing her body back swinging.

‘’It’s officer Richards, for you, whore!’’

The sound had awoken the girl on the left side of her. Luckily, the guards just found their way to the heavy metal door before she let her head rise.

‘’Good morning, beautiful. Welcome to hell.’’ The middle figure spoke, this time a bit more lively.

The orange haired woman looked at her with wide eyes full of shock, while the other woman regained her conscious as well.

‘’Nami?’’

‘’Are you okay, Robin?’’ The orange hair quickly turned in the direction of her friend, before noticing she was in the same position and situation as the raven haired.

‘’Nico Robin. Cat burglar Nami. I’m sorry to meet you in a setting like this.’’

Both of the females now poured their attention towards the central of the cell.

‘’How do you know who we are?’’ Nami quickly questioned the woman.

‘’The news talks about you every so often. Wouldn’t it be a bigger shock if I hadn’t known who the Straw Hats were?’’

Nami quickly withdrew, probably trying to figure out what happened before she lost consciousness, but Robin continued the interaction between the hanging figure and them.

‘’It’s only polite to introduce yourself to us then.’’

The woman swayed closer to the light, which was placed just a few inches from where the metal hook of her chains rested, allowing the females a better look at her figure. Her hair was long and brown; it framed soft facial features, full lips and thick black eyelashes that decorated medium oval brown eyes. Or what could be seen of her face, under a fair amount of blood the guard caused. She seemed shorter than Robin, seeing her chains were pulled more over the metal hook, but still higher than Nami. Same as her height, her age seemed to fall somewhere in the realm between the ages of the Straw Hats women. Her body was covered in dry blood and a couple of bruises, which were all visible because she was practically naked. Her wide hips were encompassed by black tight shorts, while her chest was lacking such restraint – the only thing covering her breasts was the remaining of a white tank top, which now resembled more a crop top. While the Straw Hat women were still fully dressed, this woman missed even footwear. Before she could answer, Robin already noticed the table behind the unknown woman, quickly inspecting and recognizing its contents. All of its contents.

‘’The mask.’’ Robin’s head slowly returned to the position before noticing the table, only now widen eyed did she stare at the woman.

‘’What is it, Robin?’’ Nami expectedly wanted an explanation for this situation, which grew more mysterious by every moment.

‘’Shadow Walker.’’ Quietly, Robin spoke out after a long pause. Robin’s tone of voice sounded accusing and judging, making the woman clench her aching jaw and frown.

‘’No, please.’’ Brown haired woman spoke hastily after the reveal of her identity. ‘’I’m Zaria. Only those who show no respect for balance should know me by the name such as Shadow Walker.’’

‘’You’re a serial killer and you speak of balance? Ironic.’’

‘’I can understand your opinion. The news always leave out the most critical parts of the information they receive.’’

‘’Wait, you’re the one burning up the Navy ships and bases?’’ Nami interrupted again, now connecting all of the dots. ‘’The paper said you’ve slaughtered more than a hundred officers in both of the facilities, making you responsible for deaths of more than two hundred men and women. Plus, all of the people on the ships. I agree with Robin, sounds pretty serial killer-y to me.’’

‘’That’s pretty narrow look on the things, but I guess it does sound like it. I guess I am fully guilty.’’ Zaria paused, taking a deep breath, in a desperate attempt to push down her rage. Rage of the misinformation going around the world, leaving it blind once again to actual problems, and the rage of actually being seen as a worse guy in the situation as such. She never expected to be perceived as something positive, taking into matter she was still doing something naturally wrong, but to conclude an opinion on the matter, despite not knowing all of the variables of the equation, did fill her insides with a certain amount of anger, as much as she wished to let it go. Her expectation of the world was far too great and she should’ve prepared herself for more explaining and far worse reactions to her persona. Finally, she managed to persuade herself it wasn’t the girls’ fault they formed such an opinion, despite not having all of the facts, for it wasn’t common for the criminal side of any kind of evens to give a press conference or an explanation behind their elaborate plans; so she settled on explaining it herself, even if it only were to Robin and Nami. ‘’I’ll be the worst guy. Once you ignore the fact the facilities were used by corrupted Navy officers under the sponsorship of a couple of Celestial Dragons, mostly for the use of human trafficking and sex slaves.’’

Both of her cellmates remained silent for a moment, which Zaria took to her advantage, immediately continuing.

‘’You think what you saw on that bloody island was bad? The World Government and the world know all about the happenings on the island of Sabaody Archipelago, while these monstrosities are in the dark even to the Navy HQ. I just wanted to shine some light on the currents events.’’ Zaria’s tongue carefully licked over the spot in the right corner of her mouth, absorbing its metal aroma, before she continued. ‘’They capture women in broad daylight, bring them to their bases and after months of what they call testing, decide to either sell them to third parties or keep using them till they can’t stand anymore. They deny them food and hygiene for weeks. Most of them die for exactly that reason. Not to mention, sex slaves aren’t only for sex. They’re for everything. If they’re feeling angry, they’ll beat you. If they’re horny, they’ll screw you. If they’re feeling generous, they’ll share you with their friends, family or subordinates. If you end up pregnant, they kill you. What I’m doing is far less evil then their doings. Plus, it’s quicker. And I’m almost done.’’

Robin let out a soft puff, obviously fighting inside herself, giving Nami an opportunity to express her opinion.

‘’So, you would be a lesser evil, between the two?’’

‘’No, I would just be someone fighting back. Someone trying to maintain balance. You don’t have to understand my motives. Besides, there were six ships and three bases that operated, according to my information. I’ve taken care of the ships and two of the bases. The whole man hunt should be over soon enough, meaning I’ll save your minds from the exposure to that form of news as soon as I get out of these chains.’’

Zaria clacked her shackles which made the women look up to their own handcuffs, before glancing down to their feet, which barely touched the stone floor.

‘’A woman would think you’d be relieved by these facts.’’

‘’Why would we feel easier knowing you future plans?’’ Nami yelled in her direction, still not releasing the severity of their situation.

‘’Your handcuffs are made of Sea Prism Stone. Mine are made of something similar, with same effects to myself as the Sea Prism Stone is to Robin here. It’s draining.’’

‘’You’re making the situation even worse.’’

‘’I’m only informing you with the full length of our situation. No one knows where you are, you are unlikely to escape by yourself, so the only bet we have is for the idiots here to make a mistake so I can finish my plan and escape, along with the two of you.’’

This only resulted with imaginary question marks over the heads of the women, followed by utter shock and disbelief.

‘’I’m sure you figured it out by now. We are locked in the cell of the third corrupted Navy base, with Celestial Dragons on their way to test the new merchandise.’’

Zaria took a deep breath, before completing her sentence fully.

‘’You.’’

#one piece #one piece fanfiction #one piece fandom #fanfic #equilibrium fanfic #Nico Robin #cat burglar nami #nami #roronoa zoro #monkey d. luffy #black leg sanji #tony tony chopper #franky #cyborg franky #soul king brook #zariastorm

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hotcocosharing · 7 years

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Done With You Part 4

Me as OC Hana hobo4lyfe11 as Eisuke

Hana’s POV

I am worn out.

Barely managing to get my heavy eyelids to lift, a tall, vague figure above me.

“E….Ei…Eisuke.”

Good, I seem to be able to speak again.

“Oh, princess.”

Of course, that scent of sweet cologne could only be Baba. The word thankyou stuck in my dry throat and I lick my lips, trying to draw some moisture into my mouth. To tell the thief just how much I appreciate his presence, how eager I am to give him the biggest embrace and kiss on his cheek but before my lips part, I fall asleep again.

Sleep, that’s what I need.

I wake up, finally. There’s no clock or phone to indicate how long I’ve slept but I just know, it’s been a while. My eyes open to be greeted by an unfamiliar white ceiling and antiseptic smell, hmm hospital.

I chock out over a moan as my slightest movement sends a jab of pain through my body, taking in a deep breath; I look to the sides and stare at the dark bruises covering my arms and wrists. The biggest scar lies where it cannot be seen, my shaking hand moves to my aching chest.

The sound of sliding door opening and soon comes the voices of two men, “Test result came back yet?” Just the stern tone of his voice is enough to send me on the verge of tears.

“Yes, we performed a rape kit, it came back negative.”

My heart almost stop at his sigh of relief, I couldn’t tell what’s worse.

“Apart from all the bruises, there are no major injuries.”

Right, I should be thankful, shouldn’t I? These are just bruises that will fade, nothing major. No one mention the memories and wounds that could not be erased. Medically speaking, I am in perfectly good health. He asks the doctor few more questions but all I could focus on is his silhouette visible through the thin curtain. By the time his hand reaches the curtain, I shut my eyes in time to avoid unprepared contact of any kind.

His scent lingers in the air and the familiar light touch on my cheek send chills to my spine. I probably fail to put on a poker face even with my eyes close but I am used to it, he is only inches away and yet he seems so far. The love I’ve always so carefully cherished and protected is on the edge of crumbling with my heart shatter into pieces.

The same routine happens every day, he would come visit me around the same hour and I’d always be “asleep”. Deep down, we both know the illusion I’ve put up but this wall between us seems a far better option than facing the fatal truth- whatever that might be.

I manage without interacting with Eisuke at all till the day of my release, Baba comes to drive me “home”- I always find it odd that a hotel suite has become my home but who am I to complain, especially in front of the man who owns the hotel and buys me for twenty million without a blink of an eye.

The small chat with Baba along the ride doesn’t help with the awkwardness so I ask him directly about what happened.

I was found in an abandoned office building with only few men guarding, the man in the navy suit was the son of Mr. Ozaki, the man behind all the disasters. After orchestrating the bomb explosion, framing Eisuke for tax evasion, he thought it’d be more effective to threaten him by kidnapping me. Obviously the owner of Burj Khalifa should have done his homework before crossing a man he could never out smart. His plan of assassination also back fired and the man was never found after his arrest on the news. My guess would be somewhere deep down a desert in Dubai, as for his son, Eisuke spared his life for saving me and the rest, Baba said none of them could ever lay their hands on anything and we decided to leave the conversation at that.

I wait, wait and wait aimlessly in an empty guest room for hours which turns into days. Baba, Ota, Mamoru and Soryu have all treated me like a broken doll but Eisuke is nowhere to be seen. It’s a business meeting here one day follow by a long conference call the other, the reason of not being able to see me begin to run out. And before my already meaningless waste of time turns into senseless weeks, I march into his office to end both our misery.

“Don’t I even deserve a second of your time? Not even a freaking apology?” Fighting the anger boiling in my veins as I drown into eternal despair, I hiss through clench teeth. “Oh, so you can’t even look me in the eyes after WHAT YOU’VE PUT ME THROUGH?” I yell in surprise, shock and pain at how pathetic I have been for the past few days, waiting for someone who would never own up to his mistakes and more furious at being kept in a hotel room that constantly reminds me of his empty promise- “all the happiness in the world”- What a load of crap!?

None of this would have happened if he would just back down before his rival turn hostile; I would have never walked out on him in the first place if he could just for ONCE listen, to hear my day, venting about Erika’s nonsense. Our path would have never crossed if I’d be just less clumsy, how would I have guessed that breaking a Venus statue would get myself into human trafficking and slavery. And I most certainly do not foresee myself to fall in love with the self-centered, demanding and manipulative man who started the whole black market auction. Yet, I love Eisuke Ichinomiya deeply and so blindly. I see through his flaws and imperfections, trust and love him for who he is. NONE of it matters, NONE of those counts.

“Go to hell, Eisuke!” My voice come out sharp and harsh, I am tired, I am so tired. “I … You….. it was all because of you and I…..” Barely managing to whimper out in a weak and just audible voice, not how I want myself to sound but I have never successfully lied to his face or anyone’s face for that matter. Putting on a brave face is rather pointless and I have no intention to stop my tears, they will dry out one day for my heart is now truly broken, my soul darken and my love towards this very man who stands in front of me is no longer the same, it never will. Neither he nor I will ever be the same again.

Part 1 / 2 / 3 / 5

#eisuke ichinomiya #hana kido #hana x eisuke #eisuke rp #kbtbb fanfic #kbtbb eisuke #voltage rp #voltage role play #kbtbb rp #kbtbb role play #kbtbb angst #voltage angst

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thatsjustsupergirl · 7 years

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ur post about fic & racism in the supergirl fandom really got me thinking (especially about my own biases so thank you) but also like, how there’s this incredibly pervasive but subtle new form of racism I haven’t seen b4 in other fandoms? Like on one hand u have this loud condemnation of how racist monel is & how he was a slave owner blabh blah but no corresponding attention given to the existing Black characters. 1/4

I get wlw not wanting to write m/f fic but a lot of the fandom doesn’t reblog (or make) any of the gifsets, they don’t meta for him they don’t call for more screen time for Mehcad. Same for M’gann. SO many posts talking about how awful monel is compare him to Lena and strangely don’t mention the Black female character who also came from an oppressive society to become a hero? And there are like, idk, 4 people? Who write or post wlw fic with M’gann in it? 2/4

Same with Maggie. A huge segment of fandom decided Floriana is white (even tho hollywood clearly won’t cast her in roles for white women) so they use that as an excuse to exclusively stan the very light skinned white wlw. And the way it carries over to the characters, like, okay Flo is white? but Maggie is absolutely treated like a woc in how parts of fandom aggressively ignore her & find ways to demonize her character while overtly supporting lighter skinned characters ¾

And that same part of the fandom doesn’t ever seem to create content for Lucy or Vasquez either. IDK this isn’t something u can probably explore with stats but ur post really got me thinking and it just feels really gross now bc I see all these posts condemning racism but there’s still this extreme perpetuation of privileging white characters at the same time? & I haven’t seen this particular trend in fandom b4 4/4

Oh, anon, this made my day. I have a bunch of notes waiting in a doc to address the whole Mon-El thing with regard to the racist undertones and the rhetoric used by the show to frame his storyline, and I will do my best to write it before the season comes back again, because I genuinely think they tried to aim high and just … missed completely. (But I make no promises because my thesis defense is on Tuesday.)

To your first point re: fandom attitudes – I was surprised in the early half of S2 when so many people came out of the woodwork making posts in the main tag like “wait, why did they get rid of Kara/James??” because, oh right, nobody acted like they cared for almost twelve straight months. If y’all were so okay with this ship, where were you to acknowledge its social significance when it was canon? Where are you now? Why hasn’t there been an outpouring of tweets week after week at the execs and the writers for sidelining an interracial couple in favor of what we’re getting, especially since the storyline literally handwaved away human trafficking and slavery as minor plot points?

Not only that, when there’s unrealized potential for a non-canon ship there is typically an outpouring of fic in response, and while there’s been a statistically significant amount of new Karolsen fic in S2 because it’s pretty easy to top zero percent, the writing there is not keeping pace with any of the other dude-involved pairings.

And you’re right, anon: it is not possible to prove anything with stats. HOWEVER, thanks to the addition of these new characters for S2, I *am* at the point now where it’s possible to see correlation between character race and fan engagement with different pairing choices. And the bias is there, whether it’s in the het pairings, the femslash, or even the m/m pairings. The whole reason I started tracking fic outputs in the first place was that any attempt to have this conversation last year devolved into yelling and finger-pointing because “you have no proof!” that racial bias is a thing. Except, yanno, all the POC who live with it daily saying that it’s a thing. Well, congratulations y’all: your choices leave digital footprints behind that are pretty easy to follow and chart for everyone to see.

This isn’t actually a new problem, by the way – racism and preferencing of white pairing happens a lot, in almost every fandom. The only difference maybe is that I’ve experimented with quantifying it, which is not something that people usually do when they study fandoms or fan behavior.

It pains me to no end that M’gann has been so overlooked, because her story has just as many dark character beats to it as Lena’s, if not more, plus the added bonus of her sharing a sense of “otherness” with Kara in a way that few other people can. And there is no way the disinterest in that pairing isn’t about race, because there are a whole bunch of ships from S1 between white women who’d never even met each other in canon that have more romantic fics than M’gann/anyone.

And the nonsense about Floriana, which I’ll remind everyone again was started by a white girl, had a demonstrable chilling effect on interest in Sanvers as a pairing. Like. I can actually show that on paper. And you’re absolutely right with what you said above, which bears repeating: Maggie is absolutely treated like a woc in how parts of fandom aggressively ignore her & find ways to demonize her character.

There’s also a treatment of Floriana herself that reminds me uncomfortably of how people went out of their way to demonize Naya Rivera’s personal life whenever she reminded the world she was black instead of just “very tan.” And a lot of the rhetoric people are using to talk about Floriana’s racial heritage is almost verbatim the same as what you’ll find on white supremacist discussion boards about Italian people. I’d love to think this is an accident, but I’ve made some people pretty angry for pointing this out in the past, so I suspect it’s at least partially deliberate.

Lucy was another case that drove me insane, for two reasons:

The vast majority of femslash fans flat-out ignored her as a romantic choice even though there were a whole lot of good reasons to ship her with either Kara or Alex, and a whole lot less negative reasons not to. (And it’s not like Supercat was already dominating the scene before Lucy’s character was introduced. That ship only became popular after the movie Carol came out during the winter hiatus of S1.)

People had the same fight last year about whether or not Lucy counted as a WOC and ultimately insisted that the answer was no. But then people kept on ignoring her anyway like somehow dubiously legal boss/employee relationships, potential treason, and incest were more logical bases for attraction.

Also, to the people who have been like “oh yay we could’ve had Dichen as Maggie, a real WOC” like somehow this would have made the fandom love her more – you’re full of shit. If you mean that, why has there been so little fic about Dichen as Roulette? Like, last year there were a whole bunch of shipfics featuring Livewire. There was Kara/Siobhan. And yet … no dark scenarios of Supergirl/Roulette? No Alex ones? There were even a bucketload of those for each Danvers sister + Max Lord, and this fandom isn’t even that into dudes. You’re telling me no one is interested in this kind of hero/villain dynamic with the Asian chick and somehow that’s not also about race?

tl;dr I suspect that a decent chunk of this problem is the result of subconscious bias, but some of it’s not. And what’s really sad about it is that, for all the talk on Tumblr about representation being important, we’re really doing no better as media producers than Hollywood when it comes to race. If anything, we might actually be doing worse.

#supergirl #my meta #fandom stats #fandom racism #Anonymous #asks #long post

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