video | first week of january | un: zXzALLMIGHTJRzXz

[lilizuku]

[ Off-center on the screen is a small freckled child with an impressive green bedhead. His T-shirt, of a suitable size for a teenager, is now as long as a bedgown. He fitfully rubs the sleep from his eyes. ]

Please... Anyone we know who can watch us... and reach high things... and cook katsudon? Paul-kun and I are seven years old now. Kaworu-kun is two whole years younger than us. He’s so little...

[ Tears prick at the edges of his huge green eyes. He just woke up like this, he misses his mom, he barely remembers how to work the Omni, but he must make his case. He has to ask for help for the sake of his friends, one of whom is very tiny!

However, the tiny one seems unconvinced.] Someone always comes. They leave you alone for a bit and then come back when they need you.

[ The other seven year old in question stands behind Izuku with his arms crossed over his chest, an effect somewhat undercut by the fact the sleeves of his too big sweater flop over his hands and dangle towards the floor. He glares from underneath a fringe of messy curls that match Izuku’s except for their dark colour, and amends Izuku’s statement with a crisply pronounced: ]

Which doesn’t mean we can’t defend ourselves.

Oh! [ Izuku remembers, ] And I’m very sorry, but you can’t watch us unless you’re our friend. Mom taught me not to talk to strangers.

[ Paul nods emphatically, then turns away from the screen to disappear to the left. When he does, the end of a sheathed knife that’s almost comically large for his small frame is briefly visible under the hem of his sweater. He is not kidding around about self-defense. ]

[ Izuku glances offscreen after him. ] Paul-kun, what do you have there—

[ Cheerfully, without an ounce of hesitation, Paul answers: ] A knife!

[The pale haired boy tilts his head curiously.] What’s a stranger...?


[ ooc: Due to last year's recurring event, these are temporary AU versions of Deku wannasmash, Kaworu peripheries, and Paul terriblepurpose ]

Comments

[lilizuku]

Wrackspurts. [ He says the foreign word very carefully. It's important to enunciate. ]

If Aurors are rescuing people from villains, then yes I think. Heroes are also emergency workers. It could be there's no, um, dark wizard involved at all. Do you have a lot of dark wizards in your world? What do the people with no magic do about them?

[creidim]

[ Luna nods encouragingly, yes! Just like that! Well done! ]

Well... I think that's what they would have done in the war—? They fought the dark wizards and kept people safe. [ Although the whole 'emergency workers' is a little lost on her. ] There used to be lots, but the war's over now.

People who don't have magic don't really know about them. Witches and wizards tend to keep to ourselves. But I think good witches and wizards would try to help keep non-magical people safe too.

[lilizuku]

[ Someone accidentally transmuting something they shouldn't, touching a cursed object, or finding themselves levitated into a tree too high to climb down are similar to Quirk mishaps, funnily enough. Izuku is searching for and trying to understand whatever would fill the role of emergency workers, but the words just aren't the same. ]

The world became a lot different when Quirks appeared, but we stayed people. We're all people. I couldn't imagine living apart and having to be secret, but for a while there was a lot of fighting between people with Quirks, who weren't that many, and everyone else. Now it's the other way around, but we aren't allowed to fight. People are still mean to each other though at school though. It's rare someone is born without a Quirk.

[ It's a topic mostly only adults talk about, but Izuku's situation means he thinks about it more than others. ]

[creidim]

[ The idea of people with Quirks and people without them fighting one another isn't one that surprises her. ]

See, that's exactly why we had to be secret. Because people who don't have magic would try to kill the ones who did. More often they'd just kill other non-magic people. [ So it just hurt everyone, really. ] It didn't used to be all secret, but things changed. There's always been less magic people than non-magic — I think they thought we were all evil, but we're not. We're just people.

[ There's a nod of agreement. Really, they're all just people. ]

There's some people who don't have magic that do know about us, though. Sometimes Muggles marry into families. Mum tells me there's some in ours, way back.